A Second Chance
by seanthesheep356
Summary: Alessa Sparked is a 17-year-old girl from District 11. She may seem like any other tribute, but she has one thing that separates her from her bloodthirsty opponents: faith. But will her faith be her savior, or her downfall? Recreation of a previous SYOT I did. (ForeverYoung362 was kind enough to help me with this summary; thank you!)
1. Chapter 1

_So I'll start out with an author's note, like I normally do. Warning: This author's note may make no sense at all. _

_This story is a little different than my typical OC thing, this is the story of a tribute I wrote in an SYOT. I have PMed (ehh, I don't know the "past tense" of PM so I'll just say I Private Messaged) the author of one of the submitted tributes. If you have any questions, please PM me. This is the story of the female tribute from District 11, and I decided to change the Hunger Games she was in. The SYOT was the 45th, and to be fair I'm changing these Hunger Games to be the 46th Annual Hunger Games. (I know so creative.) _

_(Almost done) This tribute (also has a different name than the SYOT "she" was in) is Alessa Sparked created by DreamingofMockingJays. Before I forget you may see some things that happened to Alessa from the SYOT, so I'm incorporating (ohmygosh I don't think I spelled that right. I'm really Derping out today sorry.) the old and the new story line. Alessa will be a bit different than the average tribute.. wait for it... religion is important to her! Please keep an open mind for the snit-bits of the Catholic religion in this. _

_**WAIT ONE MORE THING! I'm not good with reapings, I always get reviews like "The reaping was rushed" and stuff like that so I'm like :| "I know that, I'm sorry I don't need to write every single little detail." I'm concise in writing (and speaking) certain things, and Hunger Games reapings happen to be one of those. So please bare with me and if you didn't like the reapings, please don't tell me because I know it won't be your favorite part of the story.**_

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**Alessa Sparked's POV**

****I for once felt like today could have been a nearly-perfect day. The weather was cool, the sun was shining, and I was sitting in a meadow of flowers underneath a tree in the shade like I normally do. My closest friend Adam was next to me, making jokes and smiling like always, and I was almost as happy as he was. The thing that ruined the perfection of the day was the reaping for the 46th Annual Hunger Games that would soon take place. It's the same thing every year, two children get reaped who never make it past the bloodbath to have their families mourning for the rest of their lives. As terrible as it sounds, I normally have a vague memory of the tributes from District 11 because of how inferior the Capitol makes them. Being from one of the poorest Districts, that isn't a suck up puts you in a bad place if you're reaped. The tributes remain forgotten, forever. I gave up trying to believe in them, every time I did I was disappointed. I have pity on them.

"Alessa!" Adam says breaking me from my thoughts making me jump.

"You okay?" He said in response to my blank stare.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine. I was just, thinking..." I could tell by the look on his face he knew I was thinking about the reaping, and he didn't say anything else.

"What time is it?" I asked breaking the silence.

"Um, 9:30." Adam said looking at his watch. Great the reaping is in thirty minutes. As always it starts at 10:00 AM sharp. I felt my stomach knot and my heart rate pick up, then I instinctively reached for the small silver Celtic cross around my neck as I always do when I feel stressed out.

"I think we should get inside." I said and Adam nodded as we stood up walking back to my house. Reaping days are always long days, but this one was going by surprisingly fast.

We walked up to my house and I hugged Adam goodbye. We wished each other luck, then he walked back to his house as I walked into mine. I walked upstairs, then stopped in front of my sister Eliza's room. Eliza was killed by peacekeepers when she was eight because she was stuck in a cross fire during a robbery. It feels like she should still be there, sitting on her bead with a nose in a book like she always did. I remembered it; she always had her pillows arranged the same way for her to comfortably sit up and read against them, then she'd smile whenever she saw one of my parents or me gladly telling us about the story she was reading. I could see her smiling face, then I remembered the expressionless and emotionless look of her corpse as she laid in the open coffin during her wake as I wept over her with Adam trying to comfort me.

The horrid flashback made me run to my room, and I hummed to myself quietly to calm me down. The only person who's heard me sing is my music teacher Ms. Edenbleu, who I have grown so close to over the years I've known her. I always stop in her room after school, to talk about how strange my day was, how great it was, or how stressful and irritating it was. She was always there for me, especially during Eliza's funeral and wake, just like Adam was.

I changed into a black skirt that went to my knees with a white blouse, and left my waist length light brown hair braided. Ms. Edenbleu had done it this morning when I stopped by her house; it has a couple small braids here and there French braided into a long and elegant side braid.

I stood in front of my mirror looking at my appearance. I shrugged; not bad. I have been told I'm pretty; I have pale skin, freckles, and silver eyes with specks of blue here and there. I felt pretty today, and I smiled. I'm not super tall, but tall enough. I'm 5'7" and am fine with it. That's the height I always wanted to be.

I walked out of my room and into the family room to my parents and the stood up from the couch.

"I'm ready." I said which was a lie.

"You sure sweetie?" My mother said with a smirk. I felt very confused and must have looked it because she laughed.

"You forgetting something Alessa?" she said looking down at my feet, then my eyes followed hers and I saw I completely forgot my shoes. I grunted making her laugh harder, then ran upstairs again throwing on simple black ballet flats and running back downstairs.

"Yes I'm ready." I said and she shook her head walking to the door with my father. The three of us walked to the Justice Building where people were gathering. I hugged my parents goodbye then dragged my feet as I walked to the check in line. I waited for about five minutes, then heard a harsh "Next!" stepping up to a woman from the Capitol and holding out my hand. She stuck the doohickey into my finger drawing blood, stuck it on paper, then permitted me to leave. I trudged over to the section for 16 year old girls and stood in the roped off area for us blanking out during the entire thing until that dang video was over and the escort walked over to the bowl full of names as she was about to draw the girl's name.

Speaking of the escort her outfit was as terrible as they are every year, just hard to describe and strange.

She tauntingly picked out a card then strutted back to the microphone in her atrocious heels that you couldn't pay me to wear, and unfolded the card with a smile. I want to gag right now.

"Alessa Sparked!" she called in her high pitched voice with a thick Capitol accent. My stomach flipped multiple times and my knees felt weak, but I forced myself not to fall flat on my face as I walked up to the escort while being surrounded by peacekeepers. What are my parents thinking? What's Ms. Edenbleu thinking? Adam? Eliza even?!

"Now, for the boys." the escort said and I shot her a death glare. Its bad enough I just was reaped but to do it again just really bothered me!

"Erik Walters." I looked around and found a boy in the fourteen year old section. He had dark but very distinct red hair and extremely fair skin with emerald green eyes. He was good looking enough to hopefully capture the Capitol's attention. He was tall for his age, but he was malnourished as were most people in District 11 so that did't help him all too much. He was escorted by peacekeepers and stood next to me, then I saw he was 6 feet tall once he was closer to me. The escort had us shake hands, then we were escorted into the Justice Building pulled apart and thrown into different rooms. I guess these are supposed to be the final goodbyes. I wanted to feel more comfortable so I took my shoes off and laid on a couch in the room thinking about what just happened to me.

I waited for a few minutes then my parents burst through the doors. My mother had a shocked expression on her face and tears welled in her silver eyes as she ran to me and threw her arms around me. I knew she was dreading loosing another child.

And the same thing was happening with my father, he stood there with a glum expression as he hugged me not daring to say aloud that he would probably lose another child. The three of us stayed like this for a while with my mother telling me to have faith, and that she believed I could make it out of the arena alive. Though I wasn't so sure about that. They were dragged away by peacekeepers, then Adam walked in through the door immediately throwing his arms around me.

"I don't want to die." was all I managed to say.

"You won't." he said stroking my hair, and I just decided not to even bother arguing with him. Someone, like me, wasn't paying attention during the probability unit in math. I'm just using common sense, this doesn't require a math lesson to say I won't be making it back to District 11.

Adam and I spoke about other things trying to not think about the games until peacekeepers came in and tore him out of my arms, then I waited again until Ms. Edenbleu walked in. I ran into her open arms and she stroked my hair.

"You'll be alright Alessa. I know you will." she said with a calm tone.

"I don't think I will."

"You will. I have more faith in you than in anybody I know." I sighed again deciding not to argue with her and we stayed in silence hugging each other until she was dragged away from me. The escort walked in with Erik, and said "We have to go now, the train is here."

I stood up and walked to them, then she said "You forgetting something?" I looked down and saw my shoes were off and mumbled "Oh, I'll get my shoes, might need them..." and walked away putting them on, then coming back and following the two of them out to the train made by District 6.

Erik and I both tuned her out as she talked about nothing just looking around at our district for probably the last time, then we sped forward and it became a blur, and we looked one last time at the buildings behind us.

I'll never see them again, I guess I'll have to get used to the new buildings of the Capitol.

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_Well I hope that reaping chapter wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I guess that's not up to me. Thanks for reading and please review!_

_~seanthesheep356 :)_


	2. Chapter 2

_One quick thing: it will always be Alessa Sparked's POV unless I say otherwise. I don't want to write "Alessa Sparked's POV every chapter, so I thought I'd make that clear now._

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I sat on my bed hugging my knees listening to the soft hum of the trains wheels speeding across the tracks. This room I have to stay in is beautiful, with the softest sheets I have ever touched, and the most plush bed I didn't think could exist. Luckily I didn't fall into the bed because of how plush it is. It feels like I'm on a cloud.

There was a knock on my door followed by a female's voice saying "Alessa."

"It opens." I said, and a woman walked in that I had recognized as a victor from District 11, Aina Armstrong. She is probably 23 years old, having won the games when she was seventeen. She always seemed stable after the games, I see her at reapings every year. Her long black hair was clipped up with a flower, and it fell down her arms to her elbows. Her eyes were the same emerald color as Erik's and her skin was the same as his too. It was odd, Erik and her looked very similar.

"Hello Alessa, I'm Aina Armstrong and I'll be your mentor." she said holding out her hand which I shook, and she smiled warmly.

"Nice to meet you." I said making an attempt to smile. She grinned at my effort understanding its hard to smile after being reaped.

"Dinner is going to be served in about ten minutes if you're hungry."

"Oh." I said then we both heard my stomach growl. I didn't realize my last meal was a small breakfast as usual, and nor did I realize how hungry I was until she mentioned the word dinner. She smiled at my loud stomach and I mumbled "Sorry, I'm a little hungry."

"I can tell." she said warmly and I smiled. I didn't expect my mentor to be this, happy. It almost felt like I was with Ms. Edenbleu, and I didn't need to worry.

"Well Alessa I know this is really soon and you really don't know any of the tributes, but what do you think of alliances?" she asked. I haven't really thought about that. Once I make an alliance they'll probably all kill me in my sleep. I but every year there's an alliance that becomes so close and leaves everyone heartbroken when someone is lost from them. They never would kill each other, and always go into harm's way to save each other. But what are the odds of me being in that particular alliance?

"I guess I'm open to one." I said and Aina nodded.

"Good, there's always that one good alliance that sponsors end up loving. I have a feeling you'll be a part of it."

"But will they love that alliance more than the careers? "

"You never know, it does happen. Its nice to see a change sometimes, it gets people excited. Eventually they get bored of the careers all going around and killing people including each other, and they like to see an alliance who will never give up for one another. When I was in the games and in an alliance like that, I thought I'd at least go down as a good person." I nodded; she was right. She didn't think she'd live either, but she decided to at least die as a good person if it was bound to happen.

"You're right."

"But choose very carefully Alessa, because the slightest mistake can and will cost you." she said with no hint of a smile for once on her face. I nodded and said "Can you help me find people I could trust? I know you're good at it."

"Of course sweetie. I will. But I'll need to take a look at the tributes before I can say anything about them yet." I nodded and Aina smiled standing up.

"Well, I think dinner has been served; let's go eat! By the way I'm warning you if you didn't already know your escort Iris will talk about nothing for long periods of time."

"Oh I've noticed." I said making Aina laugh melodically.

"We've all been through it sweetie, I've had countless migraines from her chatter and that Capitol accent. But I learned to tune it out. That's the most important part." I groaned and began to walk with Aina, then she stopped at the door so I did too.

"You might want to put shoes on, Iris is picky about clothing especially at dinner." I groaned looking down at my feet seeing I yet again forgot my shoes, then walked over to my bed where I had put them and put them on.

"I do this a lot, you might want to get used to it." I said to Aina making her laugh again.

"Iris mentioned it." she said nodding and I rolled my eyes saying "Of course she did." Aina opened the door resting her arm on my shoulders comfortingly and walking me to the dining car. We walked through the automatic sliding doors and I marveled at the beauty around me. Everything looked so expensive and well kept, new even! It was magnificent.

I touched the smooth wood of the table and chair, they were perfect and soft which seems to make no sense. I looked up and saw Aina smiling, then she said "I was the same way when I first saw all of this." then motioned to the room around us.

"I couldn't believe any of this existed coming from District 11. The Capitol really doesn't treat us well. And every year I come back it gets even more extravagant." She said sighing. Its unfortunate that we work so hard in the Districts for the Capitol to be so luxurious. Then we live in basic houses eating chicken scratch meals compared to the Capitol.

Erik walked in with a man, who I assumed was his mentor. He was tall with blond hair and blue eyes looking like the stereotypical District 1 male, except was probably 25 years old.

Aina smiled to them and turned to me saying "Alessa this is James, Erik's mentor, and James this is Alessa." We both exchanged greetings, then Erik sat next to me at the table as food was brought out. It looked quite different than any food I've ever eaten in my life; it just looked very expensive. I could tell Erik was shocked as well, and when we took our first bites of food, we shoved the rest down our throats from how delicious it was. We were eating some kind of pasta, but that's really all I know about it. It was delectable as cheesy as that sounds.

The whole time we were eating Iris talked as Aina predicted, so I tried my best to tune her out. At one point she was talking about the shoes she was wearing and that's when I really tried my best to tune it out because I do not care whatsoever about Capitol fashion. I can only imagine how Erik feels about this conversation.

After we finished eating, Erik and I went back into our rooms. I decided to take a shower to try and pass some time. However I had to figure out how on earth the dang thing worked. There were so many buttons and switches and doohickeys I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Finally I figured out I could select scented shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and body washes. I selected the shampoo/conditioner to be strawberry pomegranate scented, and it turned out to smell SO GOOD. The soap and body wash smelled like tropical fruit, which I loved as well. I switched some button on and all of a sudden my face was washed by facial cleanser and different pressures of water until it felt silky and smooth. I turned off the water which activated the dryer, and stepped through it feeling my hair whip behind me before I was out. I was completely dry afterwords; my skin felt smooth and my hair felt softer than my bed sheets. I changed into a long, black and elegant nightgown, then walked out of my bathroom to go watch TV on my bed.

I grunted when I saw the reapings on TV, ironically District 11's reaping was on. Just when Iris was about to call my name. I watched how shocked I looked, but felt better that I didn't break down into tears or anything. I just had a cold stare on my face. Erik was fine but looked a little more worried than I did. I shuddered switching off the TV, then decided to walk around this train since the only other option I had was to stare at the ceiling until I fell asleep.

I walked into the hallway, then turned around and went back into my room. I (yet again) forgot my shoes. Once I strapped on some sandals left in m closet by the Capitol I walked out of my room shutting the door behind me. I heard murmuring through a random door, then crept up to it and listened.

"I feel worse than when I was actually in the Hunger Games and my whole alliance died! I don't know what to do anymore, I can't do this!" I heard Aina yell in a quiet way. That's weird she seemed fine earlier.

"You can't help it, there's nothing that can be done." I heard a voice and recognized it as Erik's.

"But I promised your mother the day she died that I would always protect you, and now you're a tribute in the Hunger Games. I'm not even your mentor, I'm Alessa's mentor! I feel so terrible because she needs a mentor too. I can't just let her go into that arena and not help her in any way! She's a sweet girl, its not like she was trained and already knows the drill, if she was a career that would be a different story but she isn't. She has a huge heart and I really like her Erik. As a mentor I have to do everything in my power to get her out of that arena alive! I want her to win, but you do realize I have her, my tribute who I'm supposed to comfort and help and do everything with, on one hand, and you, _my cousin_, on the other hand!"

I stood there in shock not knowing what to do probably looking like an idiot with my dropped jaw.

"I was with you since the day you were born Erik! I have grown up with you and I love you more than anything in the world. You were more than a cousin to me, you were like a twin brother! And I swore I'd always take care of you! I want more than anything for you to come home but I also have another tribute that I care about to take care of! It would kill me to abandon someone like Alessa, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Nor would I be able to live with myself if you died in the arena! I can't do this Erik, the insanity is coming in slow and tortuous doses! I'm already a train wreck, but imagine me by the time the games are over! And it'll all be because I felt like I didn't do enough for you or Alessa, if either of you dies which will have to happen!" Aina yelled.

"You do realize I have to tell Alessa about this." Aina said, then I heard Erik quietly say "Yes."

"I'll tell her tomorrow. Is that okay?"

"That's fine."

"Okay good. I'm sorry Erik, you need sleep. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Aina said and I heard him agree with her, so I took off running and high tailed it to my room shutting my door super fast and stopping it just before it would have slammed, then shut it carefully, and leaped onto my bed under the covers. Ten seconds later there was a knock on my door and I said "It opens." again. It was Aina.

"How are you doing sweetie?" she asked smiling and sitting next to me on my bed.

"Could be better." I mumbled and she nodded.

"Well I'll let you get some sleep, at least you don't have to wake up for training tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I said and she smiled, so I weakly returned it, and she walked out silently shutting the door softly behind her.

I won't have a chance in the arena, and since I don't have one that means I'll never have a second chance.

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_:O Aina is Erik's cousin! We'll see how Alessa takes the news the next morning. Please review and let me know how you liked this chapter!_

_~seanthesheep356 :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_So I yet again spaced out (I know its just a huge shock) and forgot to thank people for reviewing for this story. So thank you to:_

**_TrackerJackson_**

**_ForeverYoung362_**

**_DreamingofMockingJays_**

_for reviewing! Please keep it up._

_And I don't know why but I feel like I have to say this: Aina is pronounced like the word eye with na at the end. :) I know it was random, but sometimes I read names and I have _no _idea how to pronounce it and thought Aina would be one of those names that people are like ? Yup... I'll just uh, start writing, now, yeah..._

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There was loud and continuous beeping, so I rolled over groaning realizing it was an alarm clock. When I opened my eyes and looked at the clock I saw it was 3:08 in the morning. It should not be going off! I slid over to it trying to figure out how to turn it off but it was too high tech; I had never used a clock quite like this before.

I smacked it hard not knowing what else to do other than break it, but it kept going, if not louder, then put pillows over it which really didn't drown out the sound. I could throw it out the window... but I couldn't do that; in District 11 with our industry we respect the earth. Plus if it happens to hit someone on the head (and with my luck it will) they'll think its me trying to challenge their district for the games or something crazy like that. Even worse, it could hit a peacekeeper in the head. I shuddered at the thought then stood up taking a pillow and blanket, then walked out of my room shutting the door quietly behind me and walking to the dining car equipped with comfortable couches.

As I walked in between cars, I stopped for a moment outside looking at the beautiful night sky. There were stars everywhere, and the air was clean feeling as well as cool. I looked down at the landscape seeing meadows knowing we were still in District 11, on the outskirts of it. Nobody lives at these parts. But I was still home, so I felt a little better actually really smiling for the first time in a while.

I walked through the doors and saw familiar red hair sitting on a couch gazing out the window. Erik turned around then smiled to me which I tried to return.

"I'm sorry I'll leave now..." I said turning to go, then he said "Wait! You don't have to leave, I don't bite you know." with a laugh much like his cousin's. I was hesitant but did walk to a couch across from his sitting on it. I'm not exactly the warmest person, but he was trying to be nice so I should at least return the favor.

I pressed my lips together and smiled a bit, waiting for him to start speaking.

"So what keeps you up at three in the morning?"

"A broken alarm clock." I mumbled and he chuckled.

"Actually same thing happened to me, it went off at 2:55 and I couldn't shut it off. I took out the batteries and it still wouldn't stop." He said shaking his head with a confused expression that made me laugh. He smiled saying "Made you smile." and I glared while he stared back with an innocent smile, so my glare broke into a smile making him crack up.

"Well, I think we're still home." he said looking out the window and I nodded sadly.

"Who did you have to leave behind?" I asked quietly.

"My dad, little sisters, my best friend Liliana."

"What was Liliana like?" I asked a little louder than the first question. He laid back down on the cough looking at the ceiling as he sighed.

"She was, as perfect as I could have asked for in a friend. We grew up with each other pretty much, and were always around each other. It was like we were close siblings rather than friends. She was always smiling, always happy, loved to crack a joke or say something hilarious to break a serious moment. I can't imagine my life without her." I gulped thinking of Adam; that was a mirror description of his personality and their friendship.

"What about you?" he asked turning his head to face me.

"I had my parents, technically had a sister who died, and my best friend Adam. He was an exact description of Liliana, same exact weird but lovable personality. If I didn't have him I'd go insane, I guess it's slowly happening. He's done everything with me, been through everything with me. And the time I need him the most, he's not there. I hate that..." Erik nodded looking directly at me basically proving he felt exactly the same.

"Liliana was especially there for me when Aina went into the games. She in fact slapped a peacekeeper who said Aina would be meat for the careers!" he said laughing.

"She slapped a peacekeeper?!" I asked and he nodded laughing harder.

"She was the best. I heard him say that, and he did it deliberately to make me mad. She had turned red with anger and gritted her teeth, but I told her to let it go because peacekeepers aren't afraid to shoot you. She told me she had had enough of, let's just use the word crap, from the Capitol, then warned the peacekeeper to take back what he said. Like always he was like 'Or else what?' and she slapped him really hard with the steak we had bought for dinner. He was so shocked he said 'Did you just slap me with meat?' and she held it in his face yelling 'I'm only holding steak! That's like asking did the bear (again we'll use the word crap) in the woods?!' And trust me, she was not using crap as her word choice. Luckily we left before he could react like the average peacekeeper would and we got the heck out of there as fast as we could." I laughed hard again and he did too, which made me feel better after thinking about nothing but death for the whole day.

"Liliana sounds hilarious."

"Oh she is. I have no idea how she is still alive after that incident with the peacekeeper. I saw by his rank on his uniform he was new so that might be why."

"That was lucky."

"I know."

"Yeah she does sound like Adam. I really am gonna miss him." I said sighing.

"I'll miss Liliana." Erik said and I nodded.

"So... Is it okay if I sleep on this couch because my room has a broken alarm clock stuck going off?" Erik asked with that innocent expression he does so well. I nodded and he smiled saying "Thanks."

"Look!" I said pointing out the window. The border of District 11 and District 10 was fast approaching in the distance. We passed over and looked back to District 11 as long as we could until it was gone, then laid back down.

"Goodnight Erik." I said, then he smiled and said "Goodnight, Alessa." I shut my eyes and listened to the train's soft humming until it lulled me to sleep.

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**Aina Armstrong's POV**

I quietly shut the door to my room behind me sliding into the dining car seeing Alessa and Erik sleeping across from each other on separate couches. Well that's a good sign, if they hated each other one of them would have been in another room. I did purposely set their alarm clocks to wake them up and set it in that pointless mode that has it go off until its broken somehow. It was pointless until now.

I wanted them to talk, it would maybe make it a little easier when I told Alessa that Erik and I are cousins. I guess I did a job well done.

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**Alessa Sparked's POV**

****"Alessa, Erik get up!" I heard Aina say, then I rolled over groaning.

"Whattime 's it?" I grumbled.

"Time for breakfast, its being served now."

"Fivemoreminutes." Erik mumbled with a lazy hand movement turning his face away from the sunlight and I grunted in agreement.

"No! Both of you up! You know that five minutes turns into a half hour then next thing you know you're flying by the seat of your pants trying to tell what's up from down! UP!" Aina said forcing us up with us groaning. Iris walked in happy and cheerful as ever talking about the latest hair dye in the Capitol and I looked at the window whimpering about the fact I couldn't jump out right now.

"Got any steak?" I grumbled and Erik burst out laughing knowing exactly what I meant. Iris gave us a strange look then continued talking as we sat down at the table where the fresh breakfast awaited us.

An Avox handed Iris a message and she thanked him then read it.

"Oh no, we'll be arriving at the Capitol three hours later than expected, there's a huge storm and the tracks were closed off in District 2. We'll have to take a detour to District 7 up north and head south from there." Iris bent down to fix her shoe then Erik and I leaped out of our seats high fiving each other with Aina and James mouthing "YES!" along with us. We quickly sat back down and literally acted normal as Iris sat up, then continued eating.

I saw fields of grain and knew we were in District 9, but then saw a sign indicating there was a railroad crossing up ahead. The sign had 7 pointing to the right, 3 pointing to the left tracks, and 1 pointing between the both of them. We turned onto the tracks for District 7 and sped into forests.

"We're actually heading further away from the Capitol, I'm fine with that." I said once Iris had stepped out for who knows what.

"Oh sweetie, fine is an understatement for me." Aina said gulping down some juice.

"And also," Aina said leaning forward in her seat which meant the big news was coming, "I have to tell you something. But you have to promise me you won't be mad." And here it comes.

I nodded pretending not to know what she was about to tell me.

"Well Alessa, Erik and I are cousins. And I know that you feel I'd be biased towards him. But I promise, swear on anything important that you can imagine, that I will protect the both of you. I would never let either of you go, you are my tributes and it's my responsibility I get you out of that arena alive. I love the both you you. Alessa though I haven't known you for a while I've always been able to well which tributes I will end up loving and which I don't. You were different than the average, and I know I'll be protective of you and Erik. I just don't want you to think I'm only going to help him because he's my cousin. Okay?" I pretended to be shocked but nodded.

"I understand Aina." I said and she nodded smiling reassuringly.

"Good. I knew you would." I nodded with a sad smile and gulped down juice, then Iris ran taking both Erik's and my blankets off the couch shivering.

"It's so cold up here!" she said.

"You live in the Capitol, it's cold there too!" James said and Iris shuddered shaking her head.

"Maybe you should wear, like, pants rather than a strapless top and skirt." I said and Iris looked appalled.

"This shirt with pants? That would never work!"

"With all do respect ma'am I think Alessa's trying to say its better to be comfortable and practical than to have an outfit work. Plus they're clothes it isn't the end of the world." Aina said. Iris scoffed and Aina shrugged.

I still thought about what Aina said for the rest of the day, but wasn't sure I could believe it. I believed that Aina wants to help me, but in reality she'd much rather have her cousin with the games than some girl she met yesterday.

I guess I'll find out when I'm in the arena.

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_Thanks again for reading, please review! The next chapter is the arrival at the Capitol. :O _


	4. Chapter 4

_So this chapter is the arrival at the Capitol, and the chariot event. I decided to do something like a contest in a way. I wanted to incorporate quotes from popular TV shows into the chapter and see if you recognize them. If you do then say what show, and what character said it. I'll give you guys a hint: they'll be from my favorite shows. (They're on my profile page...) _

_I'm so glad you guys loved chapter 3! Does Liliana's personality sound the slightest bit familiar? *CLEARS THROAT LOUDLY FOR A LONG TIME* Does it? :)_

_I accidentally forgot to say thank you to DEP61 for reviewing on chapter two. Also thanks to ForeverYoung362 and TrackerJackson for reviewing again. I see the traffic graph for this story and am like "THAT MANY EHMEHEHEMEHEMEH!" So I KNOW there are more readers than reviews. So long story short, REVIEW PLEASE OHMYGOSH! Yeah... Look out for the quotes, and REVIEW!_

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"There it is!" Iris squealed pointing out the window. We saw an _enormous _city with tall skyscrapers everywhere, cars driving around on the streets, planes flying above the buildings, and trains shooting between the buildings taking people to different parts of the wondrous place.

"My gosh." I whispered not being able to take my eyes off it. It really was amazing, I couldn't believe everything could look so new and high tech; it was futuristic at least for the people in poorer districts. Erik and I were both mesmerized and could not stop staring as we passed on the tracks over the dam of the city. I could see the training center buildings in the distance. Not close, but we're going fast so it won't be that long until we get there.

"How fast are we going?" Erik asked.

"200 miles per hour." Iris said proudly. Erik and I were yet again shocked. Yep I was right; we'll be there momentarily. Aina and James knew it too because they rolled their eyes.

We shot through a tunnel, then arrived at a station full of people, and horribly bright colors.

"Pretend like you love them!" Aina said, then turned around waving and smiling to them. Erik quickly followed and waved smiling his usual charming smile, and I was the only one with a straight face.

"Do I have to love them now? I thought that was for interviews!" I moaned.

"Yes if you want sponsors. If you don't, keep doing what your doing sweetie." Aina said then blew a kiss to someone. I groaned but smiled and waved. It was so weird, I was interacting with people who can't wait to see me die. I was interacting with strange strangers.

"Okay guys once we get inside, we'll be going straight down to the remake center. There you'll meet your prep team and they'll do whatever they gotta do, then you'll meet your stylist, who will give you your chariot outfit. From then your stylist will escort you up to the room where the chariots are and that will be your first look at the other tributes."

"When you're in the room with them _do not_ look intimidated, do I make myself clear?" James asked and Erik and I nodded.

"Yeah if you look weak the first time you're around them you're on their bloodbath list. Be friendly if people talk to you, but do not look weak. I know you two can do it. Stick together, it always helps to have someone with you. Its already awkward enough at least you two know each other and are friends, aren't you?" Aina said, then Erik looked at me.

I nodded to him making him smile, then said "Yeah of course." "Yep." he agreed with me.

"Good, just stick together then, I think you know what to do. Any questions?" James said and we shook our heads no.

"Let's get you down to the remake center then." Aina said, then she escorted us through the crowd as they flashed pictures which appeared on screens in front of us. The last one I saw was of Erik and I looking at each other with a shocked/get me the heck-out-of-here-I'm-annoyed expression. I liked that one actually, too bad I won't be able to see it again.

We finally entered the beautiful building, then Aina had to walk us around because Erik and I were lagging behind being distracted from the building. She pressed a button for an elevator, then it came almost right away, and James pressed the button saying "RMK CNTR" We looked down and around us; the elevator changed from a green to a dark blue, then to a dark red on the inside as it was moving. My jaw was nearly on the floor; same goes for Erik.

Aina and James walked us past all these different rooms then stopped in front of two rooms that had "District 11 male" and "District 11 female" above each door.

"Change into the hospital gowns laid out for you." James said, then he and Aina said goodbye to us wishing us luck, then walked back to the elevator. Erik and I said goodbye, then walked into our rooms.

I took off my clothes changing into the sky blue hospital gown on the table, and then sat on it waiting for my prep team. After about two minutes I heard the sound of footsteps and voices, then my door opened and three women walked in, each in strange outfits. One had golden hair pulled up elegantly, with gold eyelashes and gold eye shadow to match her golden dress. Her outfit was actually pretty, normally I can't stand Capitol clothing. Her eyes were green and stood out nicely against her dress. The second one had Maroon red hair, with thick sapphire blue eyelashes about two inches long, and a dress the same color as her eye lashes. The third woman was in all pink with a bright pink wig that drove me crazy, and pink jewels on her eyes with the eye shadow.

"Hello Alessa I'm Elenora, that is Aurora," she said motioning to the one with the dark red hair who waved, "and that is Ella." she said motioning to the pink one who grinned and waved.

"Nice to meet you." I said trying to be as nice as I could.

"We'll get to work then, okay?" Elenora said and I nodded.

"I successfully bedazzled my face!" Ella said gleefully as she out out some tool. The three of them talked about it, but I could tell Elenora could care less. She was the sharpest of the three. I tuned it out but had a hard time, it was like Iris times two. (Elenora wasn't like them..)

* * *

"We'll go and get Phoenix." Elenora said and they left me alone in the room. I felt somewhat raw because there was no hair on my body except for the hair on my head. Stray pieces were cut, eyebrows were plucked, every single piece of hair was gone! They trimmed the small split ends from the bottom of my hair; it was time to get it cut anyway. But I love having it this long.

The three of them had also put makeup on and had put my hair into a half up (more like 2/3 up) style with some of it falling over my shoulder down to my elbow. Again I don't know what that looks like, I can't see much of it.

The door opened and a woman wearing all red and black walked in carrying a garment bag. She smiled and I nearly jumped; the iris's of her eyes were red.

"Hi Alessa I'm Phoenix; your stylist." She said holding out her hand, and I shook it smiling.

"So you change into this, I'll turn around because I have a second part of the outfit for you." I nodded and she turned to the wall as I put on the dress, then permitted her to turn around and face me again. She went to a cabinet pulling out a beautiful flower crown, looking like they were the flowers from the meadow that Adam and I always sit in. She placed it on my head, then had me stand in front of a mirror I hadn't noticed.

I looked beautiful! My pale skin was glowing, my hair looked and felt like silk, and my features were brought out with the natural looking makeup. The dress was a gorgeous dark green dress with long and flowing sleeves. It had beautiful patterns of lace and flowers, and sheer fabric that flowed at my feet moving in waves with any small movement.

"It's beautiful."

"Thank you Alessa. I was hoping you'd love it."

"I do."

"That's wonderful. Come on let's get you and Erik upstairs." she said, then I followed her out the door. She grabbed him from his room, then he raised his eyebrows as he looked at me.

"You look... great." he said still looking stunned. I smiled and said "Thank you. You look really nice yourself." He had a dark green shirt and jeans; I guess representing the agricultural aspect of the district. I was the nature part I guess. He did look nice though, he was an attractive kid; I know they'll love him.

We went into the elevator and were again mesmerized by the changing colors then hit the ground floor walking out with Phoenix. We walked into a (of course beautifully decorated) hallway with wooden doors at the end.

"Okay guys, beyond that door is where all the tributes are. You'll do fine, remember if you start to get nervous think that they're just average regular people. You don't get nervous when you go to buy groceries do you?" Both Erik and I shook our heads no and she smiled.

"My point. Pretend like they're random people you'll never see in your life again if you get nervous. You never know you could make some friends. Okay?" We nodded and she said "Alright. I'll walk you guys in."

She led us forward and I gulped as my stomach lurched, then she opened the doors and we walked into the room.

It was enormous with really tall ceilings, but that's because we all get on the chariots in here. I looked down and saw all the other tributes, well the ones who had arrived so far. Still a lot of them. My stomach did another somersault, and I walked forward with Erik. The girl from District 1 laughed by her District partner, and they already had the tributes from District 2 and District 4 around them. The careers all looked strong. But the one who caught my eye was the girl from District 2. She had a sarcastic smile on her face, not really laughing with the others. She was mysterious, and had dangerous cold golden eyes that stood out against her black hair and pale skin. She was pretty but didn't abuse it like careers typically do.

The two tributes from District 6 looked like they'd be 14 and 16. The girl had on a navy blue pencil skirt down to her knees and a matching navy blue suit jacket; I could tell it was a pilot's uniform. She had her long, loose corkscrew curs hanging down her back and over her shoulders reaching her waist. Her brother had the same outfit on except had navy blue slacks on.

The District 1 tributes were wearing outfits adorned with jewels, the District 2 tributes had armor like nearly every year, District 3 had interesting outfits looking like hardware, four looked like mermaids or from the ocean in some way like every year, five looked like lightening bolts with the neon yellow and zigzagged patters on their suit or dresses, 7 looked like lumberjacks, 8 looked like a quilt from the millions of fabrics stitched together, 9 looked like they were basically wearing wheat woven together, 10 definitely was interesting. The girl had her black hair pulled up and was wearing a short sleeved very elegant black Victorian dress with a bustle and everything. She held a pitchfork in her hands. The boy looked like a cowboy. I think it was representing the first farmers in the west a LONG time ago. That's why she was wearing a Victorian dress. Then the pitchfork was a reminder it was District 10 because the outfit wasn't so obvious. I realized they both looked very similar, they must be related somehow. I could tell they were 14 years old too. They both had light silver/blue eyes and black hair, the girl being beautiful and the boy being handsome. I could tell Erik thought the girl was beautiful because he couldn't seem to take his eyes off her. I elbowed him and he tried looking at others, so we looked at the tributes from 12. The District 12 tributes were dressed like coal miners, which was actually kind of neat. They had hard hats, dusty but fashionable and normal clothes carrying pickaxes.

"Thirty seconds." a computerized voice said, then we got into the chariots and waited staring at the giant closed doors we would leave the room through.

"Wait Christina!" we heard someone shout in a whisper. There was a woman who I could tell was on a prep team, and she ran up to the girl from District 10. The woman was holding lipstick and Christina whispered to her brother "She applied it four times already geez!"

"How're are you gonna cheerlead your way out of this one Buffy?" and the people who could hear them snorted with laughter.

"I can't, she can be meaner than a barn owl at sunset." Christina whispered back, then she bent over getting more lipstick put on. Erik and I were cracking up along with the tributes from District 9 in front of them.

"Beautiful!" the woman squeaked. Christina smiled but I could tell she was angry.

"Now give me Beyonce." he said and Christina whimpered silently.

"Do I have to?" she asked quietly.

"YES NOW!" Christina made a hilarious circular motion with her head, and I was laughing really hard in silence along with other tributes and Christina's brother.

"So she's that bad?" Christina's brother whispered and she nodded.

"I informed you thusly." she said, then the doors opened and District 1 went through them. We waited then District 10 went, and finally Erik and I. We smiled waving and heard a deafening scream, with tons of colors and flashes for pictures. It was crazy. It was going well, I wasn't that nervous.

We pulled over and listened as the president gave a speech, then other chariots pulled in front of ours in numerical order. As we were going into the doors for another room I heard Christina mutter "I haven't been judged by this many people since I forgot my canvas bags at Whole Foods." and I snorted with laughter gripping the chariot harder seeing Erik was laughing after hearing the same thing. Those two are _hilarious! _

Erik and I were greeted by Aina and James who hugged us congratulating us.

"You both were perfect! You looked happy and like you wanted to be there! I'm so proud of the both of you!" Aina cried and we laughed. I have a feeling training tomorrow will be even more nerve wracking than this though, unfortunately for me.

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_There were six quotes from TV shows I love. See if you can guess them! They were three different shows, don't know if that's much help but its worth giving a hint. I will say the answers in the next chapter. Remember to guess the show and character. Also remember to review, thanks for reading!_

_~seanthesheep356 :)_


	5. Chapter 5

_Thank you to:_

_TrackerJackson_

_ForeverYoung362_

_For reviewing on chapter four, please keep them up! So I'll tell you what the quotes were:_

_"I successfully bedazzled my face!" ~Gravity Falls: Mabel Pines (TrackerJackson got that one, I knew they would.)_

_"How're you gonna cheerlead your way out of this one Buffy?" ~Modern Family: Mitchell Pritchett_

_"She can be meaner than a barn owl at sunset." ~Modern Family: Cam Tucker_

_"Now give me Beyonce." ~Modern Family: Cam Tucker_

_"I informed you thusly." ~The Big Bang Theory: Dr. Sheldon Cooper_

_"I haven't been judged by this many people since I forgot my canvas bags at Whole Foods." ~Modern Family: Mitchell Pritchett_

_This chapter is Day 1 of training, so there will be names of plants. Those plants, are nonexistant. I just made them up! I don't know much about plants so that's why I just made these up._

_So I'll keep up the quotes from shows, they'll typically be from Modern Family or The Big Bang Theory. This time I'll have some quotes from a comedian on Saturday Night Live. *Clears throat loudly* I think at LEAST one of you will know who it is. *clears throat again*_

* * *

There were three knocks on my door, then "Alessa." Knock, knock, knock, "Alessa." Knock, knock, knock, "Alessa." I groaned and got out of bed opening the door to find Aina with an evil grin on her face.

"The heck?" I moaned and she giggled evilly.

"Erik and I learned ways to annoy each other, welcome to the family sweetie."

"Oh geez." I groaned and she laughed.

"Breakfast is coming out."

"Okay I'm coming." I said following her down the hallway. The training center's apartments were even nicer than the train, if that's possible. I sat down next to Erik and food came right out, again even more delicious than the food from the train. Erik and I gulped it down, as James and Aina gave us advice about training today. Erik and I went back to our rooms to change.

The training clothes were laid out on my bed, so I changed into them. They were made of a soft and cool material; the shirt was a sleeveless one like a tank top but with a higher neckline. The pants were tight fitting with the same flexible material ending half way down my calves. There were black sneakers that felt like I was walking on a cloud, with soles that gripped the ground well as I walked. I put my hair into a ponytail, then braided it into a long braid down my back. I walked up to the mirror in my room and gazed at my reflection. There was the number 11 in white on the bottom right side of my shirt and the bottom right side of my pant legs where the insignia of the company would be put on clothes. I really looked like a tribute now.

"Again guys don't look intimidated. The careers are going to show off and try to scare everyone today right at the beginning of training. Don't even pay attention to them, they just want people watching them. I know its hard but that's what I did and they left me alone the entire games. They'd rather spend their time scaring someone than trying to get a reaction out of someone. I tell the tributes I mentor every year this advice and it goes a long way. Just pretend like they aren't there." Aina told us and we nodded.

"And my advice to you is to not do stuff that will bring attention to you at first. Save it for later. I stayed away from weapons the first day because if I made a fool of myself the first day I would have been a joke to the careers. But don't let them bully you, whatever happens. They aren't worth the aggravation. Okay?" James said to us and we nodded.

"I think you guys are ready. I'll take you down today." Aina said standing, then Erik and I got in the elevator with her, and it changed colors as it sped us down to the training floor. The doors opened to a large, large room with all these glistening weapons everywhere, and the gamemakers talking to each other in a room separated for them where they could still watch us.

Aina was examining each tribute closely and some looked at her knowing she meant business. Aina stopped walking saying to Erik and I "Good luck you two, I know you'll do fine. Make friends now, not enemies." We nodded, then she smiled with a nod, and walked back to the elevator. The careers were already in a group murmuring things to each other, and everyone else was kind of just awkwardly sitting there.

"Alessa we have to talk to some people its getting awkward and the careers are targeting the ones who look the most awkward." Erik whispered.

"Who?!"

"How about Christina and her brother? They're the closest to us anyway."

"Fine." I said nervously then followed him over to them. Hopefully he knows what he's doing; I won't be the first to speak up.

"You guys know when we're actually supposed to start?" Erik asked and they whirled around.

"Any minute now, hopefully." The boy said looking around.

"District 7 is late." Christina groaned.

"It's getting really awkward in here they'd better hurry up." Her brother said.

"Well since we're here and waiting, I'm Erik, and this is Alessa." Erik said motioning to me so I offered a smile. Christina smiled confidently and her brother did too.

"I'm Christina, and this is Ender. It's very nice meeting you." she said and he nodded with us. All of a sudden we heard the girl from District 1 laugh loudly and she said "I know! I can't wait for the games!" then Christina had an annoyed look on her face as he muttered "Well that makes one of you." Erik and I cracked up quietly and Ender smiled.

Atala the head trainer called all the tributes in a group around her, and I stood in between Christina and Ender. Atala told us not to fight with other tributes, what percentage of people would die from what in the arena, and pretty much everything we didn't want to hear. I could see Christina with an annoyed expression on her face and wished I could hear a sarcastic comment of hers to cheer me up. Finally we were allowed to go and train, so Christina, Ender, Erik, and I all went towards the nearest drinking fountain to talk about what we'd do.

"So guys, did you want to be allies with Ender and I?" Christina asked. Erik looked at me and I looked at him nodding; I think I could trust these two. What do we have to lose?

"Yes." we both said, then shook hands with them.

"So, my mentor said to stay away from weapons because she assumed I knew nothing about them. But where I lived I had to learn to use pitchforks, so I think I'll show you guys later." Christina said and we nodded.

"Did you guys get any training with weapons?" she asked Erik and I. We shook our heads no.

"But you're good with plants aren't you?" We nodded and she smiled.

"Can you help Christina and I learn about them? We'll help you with weapons. We don't know anything about plants." Ender said.

"Sure." Erik said, then we walked over to the plant station. We showed Ender and Christina which plants were poisonous and what would happen to you if you ate them. Erik decided to work with Christina on a crossword puzzle that had the side effects of certain plants and the plant names for the blanks. I went with Ender to this thing that was made of a large screen and had the silhouettes of plants on it, and it gave you the problem that would need a plant to cure it. You selected the plant or plants from the screen, and see if you were right.

The screen read "Food poisoning" and I said to Ender "So are you thinking a tree or a bush?" He thought for a moment said "Bush...?" I nodded and he smiled.

"Good! Now which ones did the book say irritate the stomach?"

"Anything without mint in it."

"Correct, so that eliminates about 7/8 of the plants." he selected Rosewood Bush, and it was right. "Cured." came up on the screen and he beamed proudly. He was actually very good at this, and he got eight right, then the ninth one was wrong and "Dead." came up on the screen making him frown.

"You did very well for the first time; there's no way I would have been able to do this for this long if I was just learning these. We'll give Christina a try now, okay?" he nodded and we walked over to Christina who was glowering at her crossword puzzle scribbling names of different plants across her paper.

"We're done with the, doohickey-whatever-it-is." Ender said pointing to it.

"Just a minute I'm almost done!" Christina said writing down another word, then she stood up triumphantly saying "Done!"

"Let's get it graded." I said taking the paper, then walked over to a scanner. I put it in, then it beeped and came back out. 93% was the score. Christina whooped with glee jumping a little after seeing her score.

"I didn't think I was going to do that well!" she cried. We congratulated her, then her and Erik walked over to the, nameless-plant thing while Ender and I got a different crossword puzzle.

"So, the first one says 'If you get cut with an unsanitary object (i.e. knife, tree branch, knee skid in dirt) what would you put on it?'" I read aloud.

"It has sixteen spaces." Ender said, and I knew what it was.

"Well, what's a synonym for cream? In this context. He looked confused for a second and I said "Think of a term the Capitol would use."

"Oh! Ointment, right?"

"Yes its an ointment! Do you know the full name for it?"

"Umm... Redwater Ointment?"

"That's it!" I said and he smiled writing it on the piece of paper. We did more, and he only needed help with a couple of them, which was pretty good for his first time.

He finished the crossword so we had it graded, and he got a 94%.

"Good job! Next time you'll do one without my help, and we'll see if you remember this stuff, okay?" He nodded smiling, then we went to Christina and Erik as she finished the activity we did before.

"It said dead after six tries for me. But I thought I'd do worse!" Christina said excitedly.

"Good job!" I said to her, and she beamed proudly saying "Thanks."

As we walked away from the plants we saw careers throwing weapons and stuff in a cocky way. Christina scoffed and rolled her eyes watching them as they smirked.

"I'm so sick of the same thing every year; the trained cocky and just plain annoying career that every district except the suck-up districts hate. Every year they just end up dying in a horrible way, they never learn," she turned in the directions of the careers whispering in an angry way "Your stupid tactics, won't give you JACK SQUAT!" with a furious hand movement making Erik and I laugh. Ender shook his head with a smile; he must be really used to her.

We looked at the obstacle course area and saw the boy from District 1 with a cocky grin on his face saying to the girls from Districts 1 and 2 who were bystanders that the course would be a piece of cake. Ender shook his head rolling his eyes, then the boy from District 1 began going through the course with ease. There was a mountain he had to climb with a backpack (just a steep hill with some random vegetation), so he jumped down from the monkey bars grabbing the bag then ran up the side of one hill with a smile on his face. He began to run down the hill and Christina said "Ohhh.. not a good idea." quietly. The boy as she predicted, missed his footing and tumbled down the hill with random supplies from the backpack flopping _everywhere. _It was _hilarious,_ everyone was laughing, even the careers. It was a rare opportunity to laugh at a career messing up.

"Yard sale!" Ender said loud enough for our group to hear, then Christina said "Its an expression we use back in District 10; when someone falls and leaves a mess everywhere we call it a yard sale." Erik and I began to laugh really hard, but we kept it silent so the boy from District 1 wouldn't assume we were laughing at him. He was _so _embarrassed; and was not happy with his allies laughing.

Christina and Ender decided they'd show Erik and I how they use pitchforks, and if we had enough time, how to throw them. We were in front of a glass room, and it only permitted one person at a time for throwing weapons.

"I'll go first I guess." Christina said hesitantly, then she picked five pitchforks walking into the room making it light up a little. She was watching something then looked surprised for whatever reason, and shrugged putting her weapons on the floor then holding out her arms like wings. Some lights scanned her, then a holographic human shape ran in front of her as she jumped back in shock. The figure darted behind her, then she whirled around hurling a pitchfork into its chest. It shattered in a way, then a holographic knife whizzed past her head making her jump. She saw another person raising a knife, then she threw a pitchfork to the head and it shattered away. Another image appeared running towards her, then they fenced because it had a sword. Christina was very quick and graceful swinging the pitchfork and guarding herself from being hit with lightning speed. I had no idea people from District 10 could be like this. The fight between her and the holographic figure had reached a stalemate; they were both blocking each other's blows. Christina swept a pitchfork under its feet making it fall to the ground, then she twirled the pitchfork as she quickly raised her arms, and stabbed it with a loud grunt we could hear. It shattered and the room dimmed, then she walked out taking a deep breath.

"Christina that was amazing!" Erik said excitedly and she laughed in a tired way thanking him.

"Ender your turn." she said pushing him in then he held out his arms so he could be scanned. He was as good as Christina, and took out one with the blow of a pitchfork being swung at its head. He threw them with the same precision as his sister, it was incredible to watch them. We congratulated Ender when he was done, then Christina was tapped on the shoulder by the girl from District 6, with her district partner next to her.

"Sorry to interrupt, I just had to say I saw you guys in there, and you were really good." she said sweetly.

"Thank you!" Christina and Ender said beaming.

"No problem! Thanks for distracting me after that brilliant genius took a tumble forgot how to walk." she muttered and we laughed.

"Aren't we supposed to go upstairs for dinner or something now?" Erik asked.

"Yeah when they dismiss us." The boy from District 6 said.

"TRIBUTES!" we heard Atala scream. We jumped and Christina put a hand to her ear saying "Geez that sounded like a rooster after its beak had been taped shut for a year on a Monday morning."

"Translation: you don't wanna hear a rooster that hasn't been allowed to squawk on a Monday morning. It being Monday makes the situation a whole lot worse." Ender muttered and we laughed.

"You are dismissed for the day, make sure you're here for training at 8:00 sharp in the morning tomorrow!" Atala shouted, then the tributes left the stations.

"Oh goodness." Christina whispered when a mentor stumbled in.

"Our mentor." she said as he walked up to them.

"Christina, Ender! Come on let's go! You don't want to be sittin' and squattin', or you'll be living, in a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!" he roared, then Ender yelled "Put a sock in it Herb! We heard the speech this morning!" making everyone but Christina crack up.

"Anyway we'll be needing to go soon, but I'm Ender and this is my twin sister Christina." he said to the District 6 tributes.

"I'm Ida." the girl said, then the boy said "And I'm Dylan."

"I'm Alessa." I said, then Erik said "I'm Erik."

"Well Chris, _he _can be meaner than a barn owl at sunset. Its great to have your stylist and him around _all _the time." Ender said, and Christina groaned as they walked to their mentor who had tripped over nothing nearly falling over.

"See you guys tomorrow." Ender said, then Christina waved and the rest of us did. Eventually we said bye to Ida and Dylan, then went upstairs for dinner.

I think Aina was right, I was in the good alliance this year. I guess we'll be having Ida and Dylan joining it. We'll be as big as the careers, and they aren't gonna like that.

* * *

_There were a couple more quotes, see if you can guess them. :)_

_Please review!_

_~seanthesheep356 :)_


	6. Chapter 6

_Hi! So this will be a shorter chapter because I've got a long day tomorrow and won't be able to update until at least Saturday. Unless I magically get Wifi or my phone actually decides to work for once. :| I was planning on making this the chapter from the SYOT but my computer is derping on me and I can't copy and paste anything so that's not going to work out too well. I have to rewrite the specific part I'm talking about... I know that doesn't make sense but for those of you who read it in the SYOT will understand (I think) once you've read this. Anyway I'll write the quotes from the last chapter:_

_Knock knock knock "Alessa" times three: The Big Bang Theory Dr. Sheldon Cooper and occasionally Penny_

_"Your stupid tactics, won't give you JACK SQUAT!" ~Chris Farely acting as "Motivational Speaker Matt Foley" on Conan O'Brien show. (it's on youtube and is HILARIOUS!)_

_"(you don't want to be) sittin' and squattin' or you'll be livin', in A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!" ~Chris Farley again acting as "Motivational Speaker Matt Foley" on Conan O'Brien show. _

_I think that's all of them. Actually when Christina said "Geez that sounded like a rooster after its beak had been taped shut for a year on a Monday morning." that was some I came up with. I didn't find it online, not in a show or anything, I came up with it. :D_

_ To answer TrackerJackson's question, I think I will do sponsor points. So every time you get a quote right, REVIEW, or answer a random question right you get a sponsor point. So you can buy a supply your favorite tribute may need in the arena with the sponsor point! And these will go for anyone who's reviewed. So here's the sponsor points:_

_TrackerJackson: 8_

_ForeverYoung362: 5_

_DEP61: 1_

_DreamingofMockingJays: 1_

_I will do one or maybe more random questions at the end of the chapter. Before I forget TrackerJackson and ForeverYoung362 will both recieve a shout out in this chapter. They have been wonderful friends, readers and reviewers, and especially authors! TrackerJackson is currently writing "Torn Apart" which is a fantastic sequel to an SYOT she wrote that I highly recommend reading. And ForeverYoung362 is writing an OC fic called "Suffer in Silence" which is one of my favorite OC stories ever. I would like to dedicate this chapter to the both of them, and they'll both be recognizing some jokes throughout the chapter. Please enjoy!_

* * *

Knock knock knock "Alessa!" knock knock knock "Alessa!" I groaned getting up and walking to the door. There wasn't a third set of knock so I waited for a second, then heard the third set of knocks and "Alessa!" and opened the door with a smirk seeing Aina.

"I woke you up earlier since you requested it." she said happily.

"You just love doing that don't you."

"Oh yeah I do!" she said then cackled evilly, and coughed hard so I slapped her back.

"Geez thanks. That was weird." I smirked and said "Wait here." then ran to my dresser rummaging through a drawer.

"Here's a bag of cough drops." I said, then she grinned sarcastically saying "Gee thanks." and gripped the bag putting it against her chest.

"You're welcome, and thank you Aina. I'm going to get dressed." I said and she smiled walking away. I selected a beautiful white and angelic dress from my closet, and went to the shower shutting the bathroom door behind me. I decided to select a random scent, and hope for the best. I knew they'd all be good. The shower bathed by body and washed my hair, and I could smell the soaps and shampoos. They smelled _SO_ good, like a coconut with something else I couldn't describe.

I stepped through the dryer with my hair falling back slightly damp and extremely silky, then changed into the dress, then put on gladiator sandals that went well with it. Wow I remembered shoes this time.

I checked the time, 7:30 AM, then smiled and walked out of my room shutting the door and running to the elevator. I thought I'd explorer the building as long as I was here.

The elevator doors opened to a beautiful lobby that seemed brand new with tall ceilings with beautiful crown molding on them, and with impeccable furniture.

Someone turned the corner and I froze hoping I wasn't about to get in trouble with a peacekeeper or run into a career. Luckily it was someone I recognized, but not a Capitol person or a peacekeeper or the president. He look familiar but I had no idea where from. It was a boy my age, and I swear I've seen him before. He had short brown hair and green eyes with skin more fair than mine; he was actually a really attractive kid. He looked up and saw me frozen, then smiled saying "Hey."

"Hi." I said quietly.

"What brings you down here?" he asked cheerfully.

"Um... I don't know. I kind of wanted to look around since I'll be here for the next week." He nodded and frowned.

"How about you?" I asked.

"Ah, I'm stuck in the Capitol until the games end. My mom's the secretary to Mayor Stone."

"Oh District 11's mayor? You know I'm from there."

"Yeah, I know you're from District 11. I'm sorry about... all this by the way."

"Thanks... there really isn't much that can be done though. Anyway you come to the Capitol a lot then?"

"Yeah my mom is the one who has to go back and forth, and she takes my family a lot so that way we can be in two very different places all the time. I'm fine with it though. My sister was sick and missed school the other day so she had to stay back in District 11 to make up a test while I'm here talking to you right now." he said smiling and I giggled.

"I'm Cameron McPherson, by the way." he said holding out his hand, then I shook it saying "Alessa Sparked."

"Do you know what time it is?" I asked and he got out his phone looking at the clock.

"7:40. OH FLUCK."

"Did you just say fluck?"

"Yeah, the word came about when I was trying to say flunk, but I forgot the n so it became fluck. I just use it because its nicer than some other words." he said smiling and I chuckled.

"So what's wrong?"

"I have to go pick up my two little sisters at the airport and drive them to a DMV to get a driver's license for when they're in the Capitol. I've already been through that place. Its terrible! The lines are horrible, they always have an automated system that never shuts up saying random "fun facts" about driving to "entertain" you as you wait, and the employees are dressed even weirder than the stylists for the Hunger Games and the employees also hate you. They _all _yelled at me when I went there before! The district DMV's are nicer, not great but nicer. I had to get a tractor license so I could drive through my uncle's vegetable farm. Long story short welcome to the Capitol." he said rolling his eyes.

"I'm sorry. Well if it makes you feel any better I'll be training for the Hunger Games while you're there."

"Thanks, well have fun at training."

"Thank you, you have fun at the DMV."

"I'll try." he said then his phone rang and he looked at the screen groaning.

"My sister said she saw one of my teachers and she gave her an assignment to give to me."

"That's flucking annoying!" I said and he burst out laughing which made me laugh with him.

"I agree! Well, I'm sorry we were interrupted, do you think we could meet at the same place later tonight, around seven?" I nodded vigorously with a smile and he smiled.

"Great! I'll see you later."

"Later!" I said, then we both walked in different directions. He walked out the door and I walked into the elevator pushing the button for the 11th floor. When it arrived, I ran into my apartment changing into the same training clothes, except these were probably a new pair, and French braided my hair quickly. I opened the curtains and looked out the window seeing Cameron unlocking a shiny black car. He looked up at the building seeing me, then smiled. I waved and he waved back, then got in, and pulled out of his spot carefully into traffic (he was parallel parked) and drove off.

I'm doing what I thought was impossible: making friends at the Capitol. I may not win the games, but its almost like a second chance having people I get along with.

* * *

_So here's the random question that if you get right earns you a sponsor point:_

_I always wear a certain piece of jewelry; like a token for a tribute. Is it a ring or a necklace?_


	7. Chapter 7

_So I hope you enjoyed Chapter 6, I'm glad TrackerJackson and ForeverYoung362, and they both noticed their shout-outs. _

_The only quote thing was Aina knocking on the door, which you'll see a lot. (Again that's from The Big Bang Theory) _

_TrackerJackson guessed right with the question at the end of the previous chapter. I always wear a ring. I'll put another question at the end of the chapter._

_Here are the sponsor points:_

_TrackerJackson: 10_

_ForeverYoung362: 6_

_DreamingofMockingJays:1_

_DEP61: 1_

* * *

I poked the pasta in front of me not feeling very hungry and looked around me. I was eating with Erik, Christina, Ender, Ida, and Dylan. This was a strong alliance actually: Ender and Christina were skilled with pitchforks and weapons similar to them, Erik and I could differentiate plants and knew ways to heal wounds with them. Ida and Dylan knew a lot about physics and chemistry being from the transportation District, so they could make impressive traps and strong structures as well as confusing traps I could never understand.

Throughout the day we'd go to different stations and teach each other what to do. Christina and Ender taught us weaponry in the morning, after that Erik and I would teach about plants and herbs, then Ida and Dylan would teach us how to make traps. It was lunch right now, so Ida and Dylan would get us started on traps next.

The tributes were dismissed from lunch so the six of us walked to the trap station, then Ida and Dylan agreed to show us a couple traps before we'd try one.

I saw the girl from District 1 trying to work on one, but she seemed extremely frustrated and clumsily tied loose knots. Ida and Dylan finished two different ones, then set them both next to each other and connected them. They put it in the forest terrain by us, then pressed a button next to us and we waited.

A holographic fox darted between trees and then we heard an electrical zap seeing the trap close with hologram shattering away.

"Wait how did you get the electricity?" Christina asked, then Ida beamed and held up a potato.

"Heh?" she said looking utterly confused.

"The potato was how I powered it. This is something we did in science once, to see what it was like with District 5's power industry." Ida said smiling.

"Basically you need to have a copper wire to do this, it involves the transfer of different ions from different elements, and copper is a conductor of electricity since its a metal." Dylan said then Ida nodded. Christina still looked shocked and said "Yeah I'm out of my mind right now I'll be back in five minutes." and we laughed.

"Luckily there's always a copper wire in medical kits or in miscellaneous supplies so if there are potatoes in the arena we can definitely made a trap like this. But don't worry we can make a lot more traps. We'll show you some." Dylan said then him and Ida instructed us on how to make easy traps and tie some complicated knots.

About two hours later we moved back to plants, then for the remaining two hours we worked on weapons. It wasn't going horribly and it was a lot more fun having the whole alliance together; they were all entertaining.

"Oh this is random but I never learned any of your last names." Ida said to us.

"Might as well say my full name! Christina Isabelle O'Conor." Ender rolled his eyes while smiling then shrugging saying "Ender Michael O'Conor."

"Alessa Sparked." I said meekly, and Erik said "Erik Shane Walters."

"Ida Cecilia Bolton."

"Dylan Aaron Norman."

"I'm the only one without a middle name..." I said chuckling.

"It's fine Alessa, we all know plenty of people without a middle name." Ender told me and I nodded.

"TRIBUTES! You're dismissed for the day!" Atala shouted, then we put our weapons back and made our way to the elevator. Except Herb was already down here walking to Christina and Ender.

"Oh no." Christina said.

"Christina, Ender! You're here!" Herb said happily then fell against a weapon rack.

"Our mentor." Christina grumbled to Dylan and Ida, then they both frowned.

"He's drunk, again. He isn't the sharpest pitchfork in the barn. He couldn't pour water out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel." Ender grunted and we laughed.

"Come on you two let's go!" he said, then the twins said goodbye to us and dragged their feet as they walked to him. Erik and I said goodbye to Ida and Dylan once we saw James walk in, then followed him up in the elevator.

I got into my room and looked down onto the street seeing Cameron locking his car with two girls by him; they must be his sisters. He looked tired and slightly irritated and I felt bad for him. He looked up and saw me, then broke into a huge grin. I waved and smiled to him mouthing "One hour?" and he nodded.

At least he'd make my tiring day better.

* * *

_Sorry this was a shorter chapter, but I'm kind of tired; I had a busy weekend. _

_As promised here's the question:_

_What is the last movie I saw in theaters? You get one point for attempting to answer and a point for getting it correct. Hint: it is based off of a place I want to go to. (As my job. Think_ **way way way**out there.)


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks to:_

_TrackerJackson (who has 12 sponsor points)_

_ForeverYoung362 (who has 8 sponsor points)_

_for reviewing on chapter 7. They both guessed the question at the end of the chapter correctly: The last movie I saw in theaters was Gravity (in 3D) and it was amazing! I love space too; my hint was that I want to go there some day. _

_So I have been busy and will be for a while, which means slower updates. (Not like monthly or anything) Please review and enjoy this chapter! And there may be quotes... This is the chapter like the one from the SYOT, but it'll be a little different._

* * *

I put on some black legging-type pants and a large emerald green sweater with warm boots that were as comfortable as slippers. I also put on gloves because my hands were freezing and a beanie set farther back on my head but covering my ears. Of course the air conditioning broke in this building and its off the hook. Aina found a thermometer (not quite sure where) and it said the air temperature was 56 degrees Fahrenheit! Its okay outside, but inside?! Thankfully some workers are coming in the next ten minutes to fix it.

I went into the elevator and down into the hallway meeting Cameron, then he walked me to a room and held the door open for me to enter. He shut the door behind us, and I sat on a couch in the beautiful room.

"This is an extra conference room. Its almost never used." he told me as he sat next to me.

"That's nice." I said looking around, then behind me through the windows seeing how busy the city was.

"So how was the DMV?" I asked and he scoffed.

"Horrible."

"Aw I'm sorry. What happened?"

"Well when I opened the doors to the place there was a woman _screaming _at the top of her lungs complaining that the permit test wasn't specific enough and that it was the most absurd thing she's ever seen because the question about when roadways were most slippery didn't make sense. I almost wanted to tell her the way you would answer it using physics to get her to shut up."

"How would that be?"

"When covered by a film of liquid sufficient to reduce the coefficient of static friction between the tire and the road to essentially zero, but not so deep as to introduce a new source of friction." he said somewhat quickly.

"Oh... Well, duh!" I said and he laughed.

"Anyway after that there was this woman next to us clearing her throat really loud, for like, a really long period of time. It was so loud it echoed in the place. Then someone behind us had a cough that sounded like they were dying, and someone brought their baby who screamed _so _loud. Like literally it was louder than anything I've heard from the Hunger Games. Sorry I didn't mean to bring that up-"

"It's fine I know what you meant."

"Anyway we had to plug our ears from that. Then they had the number-calling thing going off the entire time. Plus the employees screamed everything at us. And I mean everything. Then I get here and the AC breaks. Great day I had there."

"Wow that sounds terrible."

"Its okay. I hope this doesn't sound creepy but I'm glad you're here." he said with a smile.

"It's not creepy, thank you. It really means a lot to me, and I'm glad you're here too." I told him.

"So how was training?"

"Um, good I guess. The twins from District 10, both from District 6, and Erik my District partner are my allies. Its great because the two from District 10 teach us how to use pitchforks; they can use them like careers can throw knives and use swords, the tributes from 6 are physics geniuses and are very logical so they can build the most confusing traps, then Erik and I are the plant and herbs people. So all of us can work together to create a strong alliance. We all teach each other our strengths which is nice."

"That sounds great!"

"It is! And they're all funny, but Christina and Ender (the twins from District 10) are _hilarious_. You'll see in the arena I guess... They're just so quick and the things they says are all so clever."

"Well I'll definitely pay attention to them."

"I hope. I want you to see my alliance but I don't want to go into the arena."

"We'll talk about something else, this probably isn't helping."

"Got any ideas? I'm not much of a talker." I said and he grinned.

"Well I could tell you about the time I had my wisdom teeth taken out. It wasn't long ago; about a month ago so that's the first thing that came to mind."

"Sure let's hear it!" He sighed shaking his head and smiling. I have a feeling it'll be weird.

"So I was in a hospital gown and everything, and the nurse was getting the IV with morphling ready, and I noticed one part of the ceiling had a random palm tree with waves painted on it. She said to me 'When I inject this IV into you that's palm tree's gonna start to sway in the wind, okay' and I was really weirded out." I laughed and he nodded.

"That's not the best thing to hear right before it happens." I said and he nodded in agreement.

"Anyway I can't remember if it swayed in the wind or not. But my 16 year old sister, Azalea, taped every stupid thing I did afterwords. And then she sent it to me so I have it on my phone. I'll just show it to you." he said getting it out.

"So there's Azalea, my little sister Lilia and she has a twin brother named Shane. Lilia and Shane are both fifteen. I'm seventeen. Then there's my parents, and you'll see all these people in the video messing with me."

"Got it." I said cracking up already. He pressed the play button on his touch screen phone, and I saw Azalea on a busy street in the Capitol.

"So Cameron had his wisdom teeth taken out," she said with an evil grin. "And he's still drugged from the morphling. I'm taking advantage of this moment. We're about to go to an ATM, and he's doing some weird stuff already." she said turning the camera to Cameron who looked really out of it as he gazed at the buildings. He went up to the ATM putting in a code then drew money. As it came into the slot thing he screamed "I WON I WON I WON!" and I cracked up really hard. Azalea and her siblings were laughing really hard as well. Cameron slapped the air next to him, then Lilia asked him "Cameron what are you doing?"

"There's this purple triangle that won't leave me alone." he said slapping the air again. They were all laughing as well as me yet again. I feel terrible but can't help it. Cameron suddenly ran off somewhere and everyone groaned trying to find him but not finding him.

"Wait! Is that him?!" Shane asked pointing in front of him, then Azalea turned the camera into a place with a giant ball pit. It had a cartoon clown smiling which was the first clown I've seen that wasn't terrifying. Cameron was doing something with the blue balls in there, chucking them at nothing over and over and over. It was hilarious because he's seventeen years old and everyone else in there was under the age of ten; plus they were all giving him weird looks. The McPhersons ran into the place with Lilia shouting "CAMERON!" He whirled around saying "I'm hitting the purple triangle with these! Quick help me!" then chucked more at "the purple triangle".

"Lilia go get him." Azalea said, then Lilia groaned climbing into the ball pit. Cameron dove beneath the balls randomly popping up and yelling "BAZINGA!" multiple times, which was _hilarious. _He was fast; crawling around beneath the balls it was crazy. Eventually Lilia screamed "Marco!" and he screamed "Polo!" then she dove in his direction landing on his back.

"Cameron we need to go now." she said.

"But the purple triangle will follow me."

"Well then tell it to go away."

"What if it doesn't?"

"_Ignore _it. Come on let's go." she said and he reluctantly followed her out of the ball pit. The employees were so werided out they handed his mom a leash for him to wear free of charge. Cameron tried to pluck someone's hair, ended up taking off the whole wig and ran off with it screaming "DNA!" After that incident, they actually strapped the leash to him. At one point Lilia came up to him saying "Did Azalea tell you a secret?" and I heard Azalea hiss "No!"

"Yes, its a secret... Shhh..." he said putting a finger to his lips.

"What is it?" Lilia asked.

"Fine I'll tell you! But you can't tell Lilia!" he said.

"I promise." Lilia said and I burst out laughing.

"Azalea accidentally started your homework on fire. She was tired and put it in the pan on the stove rather than the eggs in the pan."

"What?!" Lilia said and they started arguing.

"MEH!" Cameron groaned separating them. The next clip started and I recognized the building out the window; the training center building.

"Well Cameron's going to bed now," Azalea said putting him on camera.

"Nighty night." Cameron said with a happy grin as he snuggled into the covers.

"You've had a big day haven't you! You met a purple triangle, played in a ball pit, got a free wig, _and _got to wear a leash!" she said happily and he nodded smiling.

"Goodnight Cameron." she said then turned the camera and waved, and the video ended.

"That was hilarious!" I said laughing hard.

"I'm glad you enjoyed watching me acting like an idiot." he said happily.

"Oh you bet I did! Thank you Cameron it really cheered me up."

"That was my goal." he said smiling triumphantly. We talked for a while more, and he'd occasionally say something mildly flirtatious.

"Well I better get back for dinner, I'll see you tomorrow, is the morning okay for you?" I told him standing up.

"Yeah perfect, same time as this morning? Here?"

"Yes that'd be great."

"See 'ya then. Wait- can I get a hug?" he said with a charming and innocent grin, and I nodded hugging him.

"You smell good." I mumbled awkwardly and he laughed. He smelled like a nice cologne that wasn't overpowering that made me melt when I smelled it.

"Thank you. You do too; whatever they put in those showers does the trick." he said chuckling. We walked out into the hallway saying goodbye, then I went to my room. I saw in the building across from mine him sitting on his bed, and I realized it was the one in the video. He did say they own an apartment in the Capitol because his family's here all the time. He smiled and waved to me, then I waved back.

I changed into pajamas in the bathroom, then brushed my teeth and laid down. At least the AC is fixed. I said my night prayers then turned on my side. I couldn't stop thinking about Cameron, it was like he wasn't just a friend, but what could it be?

Then it hit me: I think I like him. Of course I'm in the Hunger Games when this happens.

I fell asleep feeling slightly flustered when it happened; I wonder if he feels the same.

* * *

_So out of Cameron's DMV experiences, which ones have happened to me when I was at the DMV? And what were some quotes I used? :)_


	9. Chapter 9

_I know it's been a while since I updated, so I'm sorry about that. Here are the sponsor points:_

_ForeverYoung362: 10_

_TrackerJackson: 13_

_Thank you two for reading and reviewing, I love it! Actually, all the things that happened to Cameron at the DMV have happened to me! When I wrote the part about the screaming kid, I was thinking of the one from chruch, but then was like "Oh yeah I remember that one right in front of me doing pretty much the same thing for a longer amount of time *cough cough 45 minutes*." :| Ugh that was terrible... Anyway I might get my wisdom teeth taken out soon and my friend said she'd tape me so ForeverYong362 got a point for that. The palm tree painted on the ceiling actually happened to a friend of mine when they got their wisdom teeth out. The ball pit incident was from the Big Bang Theory, so was the quote "BAZINGA!" _

_And the thing Cameron said about friction, was a quote from the Big Bang Theory. I understood it because I took physics last year. :D _

_With this chapter I decided not to include the third day of training because it would be the same as the other two chapters..._

_And there may be a quote from another story that I know at least one of the people reading this is familiar with. *Eh-HEM TRACKERJACKSON EH-EHMMMMM!* (That was me clearing my throat loudly)_

* * *

I heard three knocks, then my name. Three knocks, then my name, three knocks, then my name. I grumbled opening the door to my room, and saw Aina with a smile on her face.

"Hello Aina what can I do for you?" I said sarcastically.

"Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes. Once you eat you can relax, and sleep in since today was your last day of training." She told me, then it made me smile; I hated training. After three days I became better with traps and pitchforks, but not perfect. At least everything that came out of Christina and Ender's mouths was hilarious.

Aina left and I shut the door behind me and watching more TV, then heard a knock on my door ten minutes later. I opened it and saw Erik with a humble smile on his face, then motioned for him to step in and shut the door behind him.

"What's up?" I asked him, then motioned for him to sit on my bed next to me.

"Nothing much... I just wanted to ask for some advice, if that was okay."

"Erik sweetie if its about the arena I got jack squat for you." I said then froze.

"Oh geez, I sound like Christina." I said and he laughed nervously.

"Yeah actually its not about the arena. I-" he sighed and scratched his head looking down.

"I wanted advice in a different area... You might understand. But you have to promise not to tell _anyone_ if I tell you this. Especially Aina; she'd kill me." I nodded and said "Of course I'll keep it a secret."

"Well, I kinda like her, but I'm not sure how to tell her. I feel like I should because we're about to go into the Hunger Games arena really soon, I don't know I get so nervous when I'm about to tell her."

"Oh Erik!" I said with a smile spreading across my face. He blushed and I poked him laughing making him blush even more.

"But how should I tell her? I thought, because you would know more about this than I would, you could help me out. Please?"

"Of course I will! Though between you and me, I haven't dated anyone. But I know the feeling Erik where you just want to say something but can't... I kind of have that now."

"Really? Who?!"

"Ah you wouldn't know him, I don't think. He's not a tribute but, I guess I'll tell you if you promise not to say anything to anyone at all."

"I promise."

"We'll do it later I want to give you advice with Christina first. When is the next time you'll see her?"

"After dinner."

"Oh wow. Well I'd just relax as much as you can, and tell her how you honestly feel as sincerely as you can. You don't want to beg, that's not a good idea. I know you'll do fine. She'll like you for who you are, and I get the feeling that she does like you. You _have _to tell me what happens, promise?"

"I promise."

"But you have to promise me another thing; but I know you would already do this."

"Okay."

"You have to make sure that your sure that your sure that your sure that your sure that your _sure _you feel this way. Remember you are young and when I was your age this was all new to me, hence why I held off on dating. Does that make sense?" He nodded and said "If you think of it scientifically yes."

"Good, anything else?"

"Yeah. Who was the guy you mentioned?" he asked smirking and I scoffed at him.

"Fine I'll tell you. He's from District 11 but his mom's the secretary to the mayor back in District 11 so she is always running back and forth from home to here and back home. His name is Cameron McPherson."

"OOOH! Someone's got a boyfriend!" Erik said nudging me and I felt myself flush.

"Shut _up_! He hasn't asked me out he's just a guy I like geez!" I said frantically and he waved it off.

"Fine when are you seeing him next?"

"Tonight, after dinner."

"You tell me what happens and I'll tell you." he said slyly.

"Fine." I said shaking hands with him.

"But I am _not _saying anything unless he says something. Ugh he'll find out in the interviews if he doesn't find out sooner." I grunted thinking of interviews.

"Alright then." he said, then we heard three knocks with "Alessa and Erik!" and jumped. _Knock, knock, knock,_ "Alessa and Erik!" _Knock, knock, knock, _"Alessa and Erik!"

"Aina were you eavesdropping?!" Erik shouted through the door.

"No all I heard was 'SHUT UP!' then muffled speaking." We both sighed silently with relief, then went to the door and followed her to the dining room table and sat down gobbling down the food in front of us. Both of us were eager to be finished with dinner. Aina and James let us leave, then Erik and I rushed into the elevator.

"Where are you going?" I asked, then he pushed a button for the roof.

"Roof, you?" I pushed the button for the lobby and he looked at it curiously.

"The lobby, where everyone can see and hear you?"

"Yeah I was definitely planning on standing smack dab in the center of it with a megaphone so everyone could hear us. There's a ton of rooms to go into genius!" I said sarcastically and he rolled his eyes.

"Haven't really been down there; only done it once, so _sorry _about that." he said dryly and I smiled making him smile. The elevator went down to the lobby and the doors opened, then we wished each other luck, and I stepped out walking down the hallway and knocking on the door of the room we were in earlier. Cameron opened the door, then locked it behind me and we sat on the couch.

"So how was your final day of training?" he asked and I groaned.

"Annoying as always. Its terribly awkward being in a room with twenty three other people your supposed to kill in a couple of days. I like five of them but the rest of the people I don't want to be around. Those five are in my alliance."

"Yeah I always pitied the tributes about that, awkwardness..."

"So did I. And now my arms are soar from all the pitchfork stuff, except this time we trained on the obstacle course so I had to climb monkey bars that were oiled down and super high off the ground. It makes you _so _nervous I couldn't believe how scared I was. Plus you always have the other tributes just looking at you the whole time. I'm glad that's over." He shook his head and I shrugged.

"How was your day?"

"Not bad, not amazing though. I just worked on homework at home, you know in the building next to this one. But it beats being in training for the Hunger Games, no offense."

"None taken I agree. What was it?"

"A math packet."

"Fun."

"Yes it was so p-h-u-n. Phun. It was a physics joke, did you get it?" I burst out laughing and he nodded.

"I had to do that, sorry. Anyway I was wondering if you'd be training for interviews tomorrow."

"Yeah, unfortunately." I grunted.

"Oh, well if you want, I could help you with some questions to prepare you for tomorrow. It might make the preparation quicker since you will have already practiced. And I know all the questions you could be asked."

"Sure why not?" I said then sat up straighter to face him.

"So, just try to relax, acting tense will only get you more nervous and not help. Pretend when your onstage that your talking to me. So, for the first question... Alessa, what is that necklace you're wearing?" I gently touched the cross then smiled.

"Its a cross; I'm a faithful Catholic. I've worn it every day since I was in preschool."

"Wow, so faith is very important to you. Something you probably didn't know about me is that I'm Catholic too."

"Wow that's great!" I said excitedly and he smiled.

"And who's looking out for you back at home?"

"My parents, my music teacher Ms. Edenbleu who I've grown extremely close to, and my best friend Adam."

"Very nice, no siblings?"

"Well, my sister Eliza was shot in the head after getting in between a crossfire with a peacekeeper and a shop lifter..." I said sadly trying to act in a way that would gain sympathy. Cameron frowned, and said "I'm sorry about that."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, and on a lighter note, how's school? What's your favorite subject?"

"Music. I love to sing, but not in front of people."

"That sounds wonderful! And is Ms. Edenbleu your music teacher as of now?"

"Yes so I have my favorite teacher, no offense to my other teachers I love them too, and my favorite class taught by my favorite teacher."

"I think we all wish that happened! Now, of course I've been dying to ask this, is there a someone special back home?" I felt myself flush and he smiled slyly.

"I'll answer that if you answer that question to me first!" I said quickly and he shrugged sighing nervously.

"Fine, I guess I will. I didn't think our conversation would go this way though..." he said then we sat in silence for a short moment.

"She's from District 11, but isn't there now. She's probably 5' 7" and has the most gorgeous grey eyes I've seen, and has beautiful long light brown wavy hair. And she has the most beautiful voice when she talks, I can only imagine how it sounds when she sings." I smiled but gulped; it was me after all, I was 99.9% sure.

"Your turn." he said.

"Well, he's pretty tall, probably 6' 3" as a 17 year old. He has short kind of wavy brown hair, angelic green eyes, straight white teeth, a great smile, and is extremely attractive." I said talking faster with each word.

"What's her name?" I asked him.

"You tell me his name first."

"I asked first."

"Fine. Her name is," he sighed tapping his foot nervously.

"Her name is Alessa Sparked."

"His name is Cameron McPherson." I said smiling, then a smile spread across his face and he shook his head in disbelief. Before I knew it he was kissing me, and without hesitation I returned it. As soon as we broke away we hugged each other without saying anything, then I heard his phone ring.

"Fluck!" he hissed and I laughed; it was hilarious when he said that.

"What's wrong?"

"My teacher just sent the second half of that dang packet. I'll be doing calculus all day tomorrow again! Well screw that its tomorrow." he said making me laugh then kissing me again.

"What time is it?" I asked, then he checked his phone and said "Um, 7:55."

"FLUCK!" we both yelled.

"I gotta be home by eight and that light to cross the street takes three minutes to change!"

"I have to be upstairs before they send a peacekeeper to search for me."

"Again that's way worse than what I've got. Will I see you tomorrow?"

"Of course! Evening? I might be busy in the morning."

"Same here that sounds fine. Goodnight Alessa."

"Goodnight Cameron." We walked into the hallway and I hurried to an elevator, then pushed the button for the eleventh floor, and hurried into my room changing into pajamas. I saw Cameron walk into his room; the light must have been green when he crossed lucky for him. He waved to me and I waved back blowing a kiss, which made us laugh because of how cliche it was. He leaped into the air pretending to catch it flopping onto his bed, then I laughed and shook my head as I laid on my bed turning on the TV.

There was a knock on my door, and I opened it for Erik who walked in.

"So how'd it go?" I asked.

"I told her, and she felt the same."

"AH OH MY GOSH THAT'S WONDERFUL!" I said excitedly throwing my arms around him. He laughed and patted my back, then I said "Wait a second, stand here under the light."

He moved, and I observed how he looked different.

"Wait Erik, why's your hair a little messy, were you laying down? And hmm, you wearing lip gloss? OH my gosh you didn't!" I said and he blushed looking at his shoes.

"Once I told her, she threw her arms around me and kissed me, I couldn't really help it from there." he said with a small smile.

"Ha! Well go wash up and stuff Aina will be wondering."

"Yikes." He said then I opened the door and he hurried to his room.

As terrible as it is at the Capitol, its one of the best days I've had in a long time; I was sincerely happy which I haven't felt in ages.

* * *

_Review please! I tried to wrap up the ending quickly; my eyes have been bothering me lately and feel completely dry right now. (Yay I get to put in eye drops.) _

_Here's the question and its an obvious answer:_

_What's my favorite subject in school? Like academic subject?_

_And might as well throw in a second question:_

_I love to sing. So am I a soprano or alto? (Sopranos hit high notes and altos hit lower notes)_

_Don't forget to tell me the quotes! _


	10. Chapter 10

_So here's the sponsor points:_

_TrackerJackson: 15_

_ForeverYoung362: 12_

_To answer the questions at the end of the previous chapter: My favorite subject is Physics. However science was the most common guess so its technically right. And I am a soprano. If anyone reads music: I can hit an e above the staff in treble clef. I am the opposite of an alto when I sing, I have a hard time with just normal range notes. However my voice when I speak sounds like one that an alto would have. *shrug* _

_And this chapter will be scoring, and I won't be including training for interviews so next will be interviews. _

* * *

I'm on the couch next to Erik as we both sit with a blank expression waiting to hear our scores. Our reactions would be broadcast live, there's a camera somewhere in the room I'm sitting in. That made me really nervous. The game commentators are in the middle of talking about their excitement for the games, which downright disgusts me.

"Well, let's get to the scores now!" Caesar Flickerman says then I hear Erik mutter "Finally." and I felt myself smile; he sounds like Christina.

"From District 1, Amethyst Ivory." Caesar said with the girl from District 1 on the screen with an evil smirk on her face.

"With a score of, 8." She gave a satisfied smile, then the boy from District 1 replaced her.

"District 2, Valeria Wright, with a score of... 11." Caesar said then Erik and I dropped our jaws watching Valeria give an evil smile to the camera making me shudder.

"From District 2, Mason Ashlar, with a score of 10." he said and Mason had an evil smirk on his face. I'd say District 2 is, as always, the most crazy and most dangerous in the Hunger Games. I have _got _to stay away from them.

"From District 3, Dina Arline, with a score of 5." he said and we saw the small and fragile girl smile happily. Honestly I didn't think she'd get that high of a score.

"District 3's Cian Morgan, with a score of 5." Cian smiled nicely because he too was satisfied with his score. I never saw District 3 doing anything other than traps, so they must have done that for scoring. But the game makers tend to get bored with traps and normally give a lower score when traps are done. Cian and Dina must have done well with them.

"District 4, Medea Gates, with a score of, 9." Medea smiled in a sickening way that was as bad if not worse than the District 2 tributes smiling.

"District 4, Kyle Duncan with a score of 8." Kyle smiled like Amethyst, not the happiest person in the world but not the saddest. 8 for a career is an average score they definitely want better.

"District 5, Clea Irelan with a score of, 7." Clea smiled excitedly; I guess she wasn't expecting that score.

"Elijah McFarland, with a score of 4." Elijah shrugged somewhat indifferently, he wasn't very happy about that score but didn't really do much in training that could get him a good score. All I saw him doing was memorizing plants and animals, which is useful but time consuming.

"From District 6, Ida Bolton," we heard then saw Ida appear on the screen making Erik and I perk up.

"9." I gasped and Erik dropped his jaw as we watched Ida beam with pride on the screen.

"9?!" Erik said and I nodded.

"She made traps right?" he asked.

"Yeah. She must have been really good to get a 9 for traps." I said then Erik nodded in agreement and we heard "Dylan Norman from District 6." coming from the speakers.

"8." Dylan smiled and again we dropped our jaws; they both had made traps the entire time. That's how good they were. I bet the careers are mad right now.

"From District 7, Amber Winter, with a score of 7." Amber smiled and I remembered how she threw axes with her District partner. I could expect those scores.

"Seth Elm with a score of 7." Seth smiled and was replaced by the girl from District 8. If I remember correctly she was learning how to use a sword.

"Aria Stone, from District 8, with a score of 6." she smiled happily; she had improved a lot from the first day of training.

"Ashton Reynolds with a score of 5." I saw him on the obstacle course a lot of the time. He smiled mostly for the camera, but I guess 5 isn't terrible for something so hard.

"Layla Storm from District 9, with a score of 4." Layla had a small smile on her face, but wasn't happy. I almost felt bad for her.

"Nash Tucker from District 9, with a score of 3." Nash didn't smile nor frown, he just glared. He always seemed a little hard to warm up to in general.

"Christina O'Conor from District 10." we heard then saw Christina sitting with perfect posture and a mysterious glare on her pretty face.

"With a score of, 11." Christina, instead of smiling at first, dropped her jaw with a confused expression which made everyone laugh. She's still going to be her usual weird self even in this serious situation. Then she beamed happily and laughed melodically.

"Ender O'Conor, from District 10, with a score of 10." Ender smiled but I could tell he was as shocked as Christina. Those two are mind blowing with pitchforks.

"From District 11, Alessa Sparked," I heard then sat up really straight and felt my heart rate accelerate as I saw myself onscreen. I demonstrated how quickly I can identify plants with that hard exercise I taught Ender on the first day of training.

"With a score of, 9." WHAT?! I beamed and whispered "Oh my gosh!" excitedly. That was way better than I expected.

"Erik Walters, with a score of 7." He smiled; he had done the same thing as I did which was hard to get a score above a 5, maybe a 6, with. We congratulated each other, then saw the girl from District 12 on the screen.

"Victoria Windsor, from District 12, with a score of 4." Victoria smiled a small smile, for the cameras. I honestly didn't think she'd do well. She learned survival skills which bore the game makers.

"Logan Foreman from District 12, with a score of 5." I think he tried knives. He smiled, then the game commentators were back.

"Tributes congratulations on your wonderful scores, and we'll see you for interviews tomorrow, which begin at five o'clock. May the odds be ever in your favor." Caesar said then the commercials turned on.

I was quite content, maybe I do have a chance after all.

* * *

_Now for the question..._

_What two string instruments do I play?_

_I have a feeling TrackerJackson and ForeverYoung362 will know..._


	11. Chapter 11

_Sponsor Points:_

_TrackerJackson: 18_

_ForeverYoung: 14_

_I play violin, and cello. I know how to play the double bass but not super well._

_This chapter will be the first part of interviews, I wanted to give the interviews in detail so this chapter will have Ida and Dylan's interviews. :)_

* * *

I stand backstage with my heart pounding and labored breathing with other tributes. We're about to be interviewed. And I heard that this time for each tribute they have pictures of them with friends, family, or wherever with whoever from when they lived in the Districts. That'll be interesting.

Phoenix put me in a long silver blue dress that brought out my eyes, and my curled hair pulled up leaving a long section down. The dress was made of a sheer fabric, with a solid silver blue cloth lining underneath it, except for the sleeves. The neckline was just under my shoulders, with long elegant and sheer sleeves. But I was forced to wear heels.

Amethyst from District 1 lets her stylist add a bit of lip gloss to her pink lips, then smiles confidently. She is more than happy to be here.

I looked around and saw Layla from District 9 with shaking hands, the poor girl. She was probably 13 years old, and was very thin with a small frame. She stood in front of Christina and Ender who seemed to make her nervous. Probably because of their high scores.

The careers were all cocky in their interviews, except for Valeria from District 2. She was one I wanted to watch out for. There was something about her that was even more unnerving than all the careers combined.

After Elijah walked offstage, we heard Caesar say "Please welcome, Ida Bolton from District 6!" and the crowd cheered loudly as she walked onstage. Ida wore a long gold dress that matched her golden eyes, and it was absolutely beautiful. It was long sleeved, hugged her figure, and fell to the floor elegantly. Her beautiful black corkscrew curls were left down, and she walked with confidence to Caesar. I had always seen Ida in training clothes, with her hair pulled up in a ponytail, and now she looked so beautiful. She looked like a different person, and she was more confident which helped her a lot.

"Hello Ida welcome!" Caesar said shaking her hand, then she smiled and said "Thank you Caesar it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh its wonderful to meet you too! You look fantastic!"

"Thank you very much." she said sitting down across from him.

"So now, tell me how it is in District 6. Like your family, friends, school."

"Well I love it in District 6, I have two brothers and a sister. They're all younger than me, and I have a couple friends at school, Leanna and Echo. They're both crazy girls." Ida said laughing.

"So you had a couple close friends?"

"Yeah I wasn't really super popular or anything. I was kind of a nerd and hid behind some glasses. I never cared about wearing the best clothes or anything." She was right; I had watched her reaping. I had seen two girls standing next to her who silently burst into tears when her name was called, and Ida had her hair pulled back into a ponytail and she had black glasses, not bad actually. She had worn a simple black dress with combat boots. And now she looked so different, confident, and beautiful.

"So are you wearing contacts?"

"No my stylists took me to the hospital the first night and an ophthalmologist and they corrected my vision so it's 20/20. They gave me the option of correcting it and I thought I would do it."

"Yes that was definitely something that would help you. I'm glad you chose it, you look wonderful!"

"Thank you very much!"

"You say you were a, and I quote, "nerd" but I don't think you were quite like that."

"Oh I was in a way. I love science! Physics especially. I was always good at math, though I never enjoyed it. I did enjoy science so much though! I actually have a book on the solar system that I treasure, I always carry a page with me; my favorite page." Ida said pulling out a page and unfolding it.

"It explains the physics in depth about the gravitational pull between the earth and the moon." she said handing Caesar the paper.

"Wow I wish I understood it! You'll have to explain this to me sometime okay?" he asked and she laughed nodding.

"I will." she said taking the paper back.

"Those were beautiful pictures of the earth and the moon by the way."

"Thank you!"

"Since I know you're very good at science, what science are you taking?"

"Astrophysics." she said sheepishly, then Caesar and the crowed gasped.

"Wow and you're fourteen years old!" She laughed and shook her head with a smile.

"A brilliant tribute we have!" Caesar said and the crowd roared and Ida shook her head humbly.

"No I'm not brilliant I just liked science!"

"We'll prove it! Would you be interested in solving a problem?"

"I would." she said, then Caesar motioned to the screen behind her. Ida turned and a super confusing problem I couldn't begin to solve came up. There was a crazy diagram, with the longest problem with square roots, numbers, and variables everywhere that went across the entire screen. Ida's golden eyes darted around as she was reading the equation, then I looked and saw Amethyst and the other careers looking dumbfounded.

"Negative eight bi-alpha." Ida said, then Caesar motioned so some people behind computers in the audience, who showed the answer. It was negative eight bi-alpha.

"Wow. You have blown my mind! Don't you agree folks?" Caesar asked and the crowd roared loudly. Ida laughed and put a hand over her mouth blushing.

"So in the arena, I'm sure the game makers will now have something that will go with your knowledge. With your score, what did you do to get a 9?"

"I won't say _what _I did, but… I would appreciate something to do with electricity, very much." she said, then we heard excited murmurs from the audience.

"I'm sure the game makers will take that into consideration. Lastly its time to see your home pictures." They turned and we saw a picture of Ida hugging her little sister from behind and they both had happy smiles on their face; not forced at all. Her two brothers were on either side of her and it melted my heart. Ida smiled sadly looking at the picture. The next one was Ida with two girls who I assumed were Echo and Leanna. Ida was holding the device who took the picture, so she was in the center, with her curly hair in a long ponytail, black glasses, with a funny (staged) nervous smile as who I assumed was Echo based on the description Ida gave me, had her lips pursed and eyebrows raised, then Leanna had her jaw dropped in a dramatic way. We laughed, including Ida, upon seeing this. The last one was Ida carrying one of her brothers like he had fallen asleep in her arms, though he was smiling into the camera as she smiled broadly. She had her hair in a ponytail yet again, was wearing spandex pants and a navy blue shirt with the periodic table of the elements. I heard "Aww…" coming from the crowd and even the tributes.

"Well it was a pleasure meeting you Miss Bolton, I wish you the best of luck in the arena tomorrow."

"Thank you it was a pleasure to meet you as well." she said gracefully shaking his hand, then she stood up and the crowd roared. She walked off the stage then Dylan was invited on. He shook hands with Caesar, then sat in the chair across from him.

"So Dylan welcome! How's everything going here in the Capitol for you?"

"Very well thank you." he said perfectly convincingly, though I knew it was a lie.

"You also got a wonderful score, is there a hint you can give us about it?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait and see what I did to earn that score in the arena."

"Oh that's understandable. I'm looking forward to it. How about your life in District 6, what was it like?"

"It was great! I lived with my parents and my two sisters and one brother, went to school, worked on designing cars, _homework__,"_ he grunted making people laugh.

"And my best friend John."

"That sounds wonderful. You said you helped design cars?"

"Yeah the engines. When I was finished with school I wanted to work on aircraft."

"Wow! I'm sure you'd be great at it! What was your favorite subject?"

"Physics."

"Wow just like Ida!"

"Yeah we get along well." Dylan said laughing.

"So how far away are you from graduating?"

"Two years; I'm sixteen years old."

"Oh wow soon enough! It comes right up in the blink of an eye."

"It sure does." Dylan said sadly.

"Well, is there a girl back home waiting for you?" Caesar asked then Dylan smiled looking at his hands.

"Yeah. I would give anything to see her again, and my family of course." I heard sad murmurs from the crowd, and Dylan smiled sweetly.

"I'm sure she'll be glad to see you again! We're running low on time, so let's see what pictures we've got!" They turned around, then we saw a picture of Dylan holding a girl who was probably three years old, and I could tell it was his sister. She was adorable, and it was such a sweet picture! They were both smiling so happily, like nothing bad would ever happen to them. The next one was him leaning against a car windshield sitting on the hood in a mechanic's uniform, with a pretty girl his age sitting also wearing a mechanic's uniform on top of the car with a smile. I could tell that was his girlfriend, and they had fixed the car together. The final one was Dylan with his eyes looking at a wrench his friend was holding because his friend's arm was slung over Dylan's shoulder; that I knew would be his friend John. It was hilarious actually.

"It was wonderful go meet you Dylan, good luck tomorrow."

"Thank you it was a pleasure meeting you too."

"Dylan Norman!" Caesar said standing up with Dylan then the crowd roared. Amber from District 7 walked out on stage then the tributes moved up in the line.

My stomach lurched; I hate inching closer to something so dreadful.

* * *

_Now for the question:_

_What is my favorite District? And my top three favorites?_


	12. Chapter 12

_Sponsor points:_

_TrackerJackson: 22_

_ForeverYoung362: 17_

_My favorite District is District 5, then District 6 is my second favorite, and District 3 is my third favorite. I do love District 4 because I love swimming, oceans, and water however I don't like careers._

_Also if you'll remember Ida had a book on the solar system she treasures, and I too have a book on the solar system that I love. It has beautiful pictures of asteroids, planets, moons, everything in the solar system. :D I love that book._

* * *

"Ladies and gentleman please welcome the beautiful Christina O'Conor from District 10!" Caesar said and Christina lifted the hem of her long dress with a beautiful smile on her face as she walked out to shake hands with Caesar. Christina had her long black hair curled into a bob like it was from the 1920's and an emerald green flower made of crystals was pinned on the side by her right ear with small matching feathers coming from the center of it. The dress was long sleeved, but with silver crystals adorning it. It hugged her figure then fanned out elegantly when she walked on the floor around her feet. The whole outfit was a more modern version of an outfit from the 1920's; she looked gorgeous.

I could tell she just gained tons of sponsors by walking out onstage based on the roar that came from the crowd.

"Welcome Christina you look beautiful tonight!"

"Thank you very much!" she said sitting with straight posture.

"So I hear you are quite an entertaining person."

"Really?" he asked with her hilarious shocked expression making people laugh.

"Yes I do hear you say some entertaining things. That you can always cheer people up."

"Oh, well thank you! I think…? Is that right?"

"Yes! Anyway I heard you were really close with your twin brother Ender who is also your District partner."

"Oh closer than two in a bed and three in the middle." People laughed, then Caesar asked "What does that mean?" politely.

"Its another way of saying we're close, like close friends. It's a saying we use back in District 10."

"Ah, should I be expecting a lot of sayings that will amuse me?"

"Oh yes!" she said and they laughed.

"So I'd like to talk about your training score, an astonishing eleven. How did you get that?"

"I'm afraid that answer will have to wait until the arena."

"Aw, I was excited." he whined jokingly and Christina shrugged.

"Well, to talk about District 10, I hear lots of interesting stories from there."

"And they'll keep coming let me tell you." she muttered making the crowd laugh.

"Do you have any?"

"Countless amounts, I could tell you my most recent. Ender saw this from his bedroom window…" she said looking to him backstage then he smirked.

"My neighbor's chicken got loose and chased me up the nearest tree I could run to." she said smiling.

"Chickens can't climb trees." Caesar said inquisitively.

"Thank God." Christina said nodding seriously and everyone burst out laughing.

"Any more?"

"Oh we'd be here all night but I'll tell another…" she said thinking and smiling every few seconds as she thought.

"This one's a good one." she said laughing.

"Wait I heard from someone that District 10 accidentally got a video sent in rather than pictures, I think its the story I'm about to tell."

"Is it?" Caesar asked one of the people controlling some computers, then a video came on screen behind them. Its weird because the Capitol will randomly film us to see how we're behaving just to make sure we aren't rebelling in the districts. But they film like a TV show so they have hilarious quick zooms and swerves with the cameras.

There was a house on the screen, then the camera swerved from a random part on the ceiling over to Christina as she slept peacefully in her bed.

"Yup this is it." Christina said smiling, then Ender chuckled. There was a loud somewhat high pitched groan that didn't sound human coming from somewhere outside Christina's room. Christina sat up very alert with an expression showing she was weirded-out as she removed the covers from her body. She walked slowly to the door, then opened it carefully and took silent steps into the hallway and walked downstairs cautiously as the noises grew louder.

She went into a different room, then we saw her facing the camera and everyone burst out laughing; there was a llama standing behind her in her house.

She backed into it then leaped back screaming, and gasping.

"What on earth?!" she muttered as she watched it bob its head once. Erik, Ender, and I were laughing really hard, along with Ida and Dylan. I saw the other tributes, even the careers laughing pretty hard.

Christina picked up her cell phone on the screen quickly dialing a number then we heard a male say "Hello?" and I recognized Ender's voice.

"Ender, you'll never believe what's in our house." Christina said giving the llama a weird look.

"Did another pigeon get in?"

"No for once."

"What got in?"

"A _llama._" Christina said then Ender was silent for a second.

"A llama got into our house?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't know we had llamas in District 10."

"Well apparently we do there's one standing in front of me right now! Its just staring at me and bobbing its head at random times."

"I'll be home in a second just don't let it go anywhere, and don't do anything with it."

"Well that's a problem because I was gonna invite it to a tea party!" she said sarcastically then the llama screamed loudly and Christina jumped saying "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Hurry up!"

"I will! Bye."

"Bye." All of the tributes were actually leaning against the wall or kneeling by the floor from laughing so hard, including Erik and I. The screen showed Ender walking in, then he went to Christina and froze when he saw the llama.

"Let's get it out." he said putting a rope around its neck, then pulling, followed by another loud scream from the llama making him and Christina jump. Ender tugged again getting another groan, then looked at Christina feeling puzzled.

"What do llamas eat?" Christina asked panicked.

"I don't know food!" Ender said in a frenzy over the screaming llama.

"What am I supposed to get?!"

"I don't know oats! Hurry!" Christina ran to the pantry grabbing some oats, then the llama screamed as she brought the box out.

"I'm getting a migraine Christina!" Ender yelled, then she frantically tried to put some in a bowl.

"SCREW IT!" She yelled after fumbling with the box then ran to Ender with the angry llama as he covered his ears.

"I have a headache now." he grunted as she ripped the box open. Christina put some oats into her hand, then held it up for the llama. It ate for a while, then began screaming again.

"You think you'll feel better anytime soon?" Christina yelled over the llama.

"Yeah, because I'll be dead!" Ender yelled back with an exasperated look. Christina began to pour the oats in a trail on the floor, then the llama ate and followed her. It went out the door, then they slammed it shut as soon as it got out.

"How did that even get in?" Ender asked, then Christina got a surprised look on her face.

"I don't know, none of the doors or windows were open." He looked weirded-out, then Ender said "Oh no!"

"What?"

"Mom's gonna be home soon and see llama spit all over the floor with random oatmeal all over the place then think we're llama hoarders!" Ender said then everyone laughed harder. Tears were in my eyes from laughing. The video ended with Ender and Christina frantically running around and cleaning up.

"My Christina that was _hilarious!" _Caesar said through laughter.

"Thanks." she said smiling.

"Now we're almost out of time, but do you think you're ready for the arena tomorrow?"

"I'm ready as I'll ever be." she said smiling.

"The pictures." Caesar said motioning behind him. The first one was Christina and Ender's shocked looks as they stared at the llama which made us laugh again. The second one was a beautiful one of her professionally taken with a beautiful and natural smile, and the last one was of her and Ender together as they pointed to their shirts. Ender was "Thing 1" and Christina was "Thing 2" making everyone laugh.

"He's 45 seconds older than me." she said laughing.

"Those were beautiful pictures! Let's hear it for the lovely Christina O'Conor from District 10!" Caesar said standing with her as she bowed gracefully, and the crowd roared loudly.

I wish I had her confidence. And I get more anxious by the second.

* * *

_I wanted to throw in this chapter, I promise the next one will be the last of the interviews! Let me know what you think?_

_Questions:_

_What is my favorite fruit? Do I like candy better or fruit?_


	13. Chapter 13

_My favorite fruit is a peach, I love them so much. :D And I like fruit better than candy. :)_

_Sponsor points go as follows:_

_TrackerJackson: 24_

_ForeverYoung362: 18_

_I'm glad you liked Christina and her crazy situations with Ender. There will be more in this chapter, after all this chapter will have Ender's interview… :) These are the last of the interviews, I promise._

* * *

"Please welcome the Ender O'Conor from District 10!" Caesar said then I patted Ender's shoulder whispering "Good luck." into his ear. He smiled in the charming way he does, then nodded and said "Thanks. You too." and walked out confidently waving to the crowd with the teenage girls roaring louder than everyone else. I think he was supposed to come across as charming, and to use his looks to his advantage. I heard his escort telling him to do that.

Ender shook hands with Caesar then sat down across from him.

"So Ender how have you been?"

"Wonderful thank you." he said happily then Caesar smiled.

"I'm quite glad!" he said and Ender chuckled saying "Thank you."

"May I say you have an, _interesting_ sister." Ender laughed and nodded.

"Yeah she's special isn't she?" Ender said grinning to Christina who smirked and shook her head, then the crowd laughed.

"Seriously she's a lovely young woman. You two seem to get along very well."

"We really do."

"Is there another good story from the both of you?"

"Countless. But I have a good one, well it was good for me at least." he said smiling to her and cocked her head to the side gritting her teeth and forcing her lips into an "I'm gonna get you" smile.

"Let's hear it!" Caesar said excitedly.

"Well one time Christina and I had to change clothes because we were going to take family photos, and my mom had told us that our clothes would be on the beds in our rooms. So once my mom had put Christina's dress on her bed, I switched it out knowing she was going to kill me after it. But it was worth it." he said laughing.

"I have a feeling it's one of the pictures you had sent in." Caesar said, then the screen behind them had the picture that made everyone laugh super hard. It was Christina wearing a Mary-had-a-little-lamb shepard's dress. It was pink with white lace, and a pink bonnet with a white lace bow and the staff for herding. She looked _mad._ She had her arms raised like when someone says "Wanna go?" looking really tough with that outfit. The picture was her holding the staff as Ender laughed with his hand covering his mouth.

"Yeah she was not happy. She's never liked pink. Even when she was a baby she kicked her way out of pink blankets."

"Huh, interesting." Caesar said thoughtfully. Ender suddenly realized that tons of people in the Capitol are obsessed with pink and could have lost sponsors.

"She doesn't like it for herself, but she was telling me that all the pink she sees in the crowd really brings everything to life. In fact she was telling me your hair looked great this year." Ender said cooly to Caesar who had pink hair this year. Ender smiled and shot a "just go with it!" look at her so she nodded and beamed.

"Well thank you Christina!" he said then Christina cupped her hands over her mouth shouting from her seat "You're welcome!" making everyone laugh.

"So was it just left like that or...?"

"Oh no she got her revenge. She got me back; she got me _good._" Ender said with his eyes widening making everyone laugh. Caesar's electronic device that allowed him to communicate with Capitol attendants lit up and he said "Oddly enough as soon as you said that it looks like a video was sent by your mother back in District 10!" Ender smiled sarcastically and rolled his eyes saying "Oh no. Well, thanks so much mom love you too." and everyone laughed._  
_

"I think we have time to watch it. Is it Christina's revenge?"

"Yup." he said looking at the picture for the video of Christina looking over her shoulder through the door to the room she was in. It began to play and Christina turned around and began speaking.

"So Ender thought it would be funny to switch out my clothes for a dress I would _never _wear being all pink with lace all over it, with a matching bonnet and making me look like a southern bell who can herd sheep. So now, I'm going to get him back. I put a scarecrow on the ceiling, the creepy one we use for robbers that scare them off," she said swerving the camera to the ceiling to show a grim reaper looking thing making us giggle. Just seeing a faceless hooded scarecrow on your ceiling is so weird.

"And since its for robbers, it is touch sensitive, so if its arms are touched it has that wonderful mechanism that makes the installed foghorn go off." she said with an evil smile. People in the audience went "Oh!" like Ender was in trouble. Which he was.

"Ender's brushing his teeth, so he'll be in momentarily. I'm going to leave this on the dresser where I tend to forget- I mean leave it so its not going to be a suspicious thing. He's gonna lay down on his bed, and see it. That's all that I'm planning on. He's coming!" she said and ran to the dresser than leaped onto her bed and under the covers pulling them to her neck and snuggling into her pillow as if she'd been there for a while. Ender had been looking at the floor, yawning, and rubbing his eyes as he laid in bed not noticing the lights were still on. He laid down, then opened his eyes and _screamed_. _Loud. _Then the scarecrow fell right onto Ender making the foghorn go off at full blast and him scream even louder and yell "WHAT THE FUDGE CAKES?!" underneath it trying to get it off frantically. Christina burst out laughing really hard, then sat up but fell over laughing as Ender shoved the scarecrow to the floor. Everyone in the audience was laughing so hard including the tributes.

"CHRISTINA, ENDER! WHAT WAS THAT? IS MY CHICKEN BENNY ALIVE AGAIN OR SOMETHING?!" we heard a woman scream then we burst out laughing again.

"MOM EVERYTHING'S FINE!" Christina yelled.

Christina got up from her bed, still laughing very hard, then walked over to him, laughing and falling onto his bed.

"Oh my gosh- Ender," she said then laughed harder.

"Ender, I can't stop!" she said and laughed again rolling over.

"I did not mean for it to fall!"

"What?"

"I put that up there to get you back for the dress, but it went way farther than I thought it would. It wasn't supposed to fall!" she said and burst out laughing again as he rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Oh my gosh." Ender muttered.

"I'm sorry Ender will you forgive me, please?" Christina asked and used her angelic appearance to put an innocent appearance on her face. If she was still laughing he wouldn't forgive her, at least she was genuine.

"Fine. Do _not _do it again."

"Never! But don't do what you did to me again."

"I promise I won't."

"Shake on it?" she asked and he nodded. She held out her hand, then Ender smirked, moving his hand to her ribs poking her and making her scream and leap back, then she lunged onto him and they wrestled just a little. More like an affectionate kind between brothers and sisters. Eventually Ender got his arms around Christina and she was forced into a bear hug from him as she laughed. She smirked then said "I'll force you to shake my hand."

"How?"

"Oh sweetie I'll embarrass you." she said then gave him a kiss on the cheek making him look at her like "that's all you got?" then she kissed him again louder, then again _way_ louder until he grimaced and jumped while turning bright red and holding out his hand as she shook it firmly.

"That was weird did you have a gallon of water in your mouth when you kissed me that last time?" he muttered and she laughed.

"Nope, just went like this silently." then she made a noise like when someone's about to spit into their hand for the strange handshake and Ender looked annoyed as she continued loudly to bug him.

"Alright I got the idea!" he said letting her go, then she laughed and ruffled his hair taking a running start then jumping onto her bed. She had a remote in her hand that she pulled out of her pocket, then looked at the camera after snuggling in the covers saying "Goodnight Ender."

"Goodnight Christina." he said turning off the lights.

"Love you." she said.

"Love you too." he said and she smiled into the camera, then clicked the remote and the video ended.

"Wow Ender that was hilarious. I have tears in my eyes." Caesar said laughing as Ender laughed nervously.

"Welcome to my life." he said quietly and everyone laughed.

"What did you do with that?"

"Christina and I took it outside ten minutes later, it was creepy having it laying on the floor."

"You two certainly are creative."

"You could say that." Ender said nodding humorously and smiled charmingly.

"Now Ender how was life back in District 10, school?"

"It was great, I mean school was kinda stressful at times but stuff like that happens I guess. Ha, now that I think about it, everything was really nice. Christina and I worked on our uncle's farm after school twice a week, it was kinda fun at times."

"Did you have a favorite subject?"

"Um, I've always found science to be my favorite subject actually."

"Really? That's great!"

"Thanks, I'm nowhere as good at science as Ida and Dylan though. I like space science the best."

"It is fascinating isn't it?"

"Very."

"And you're training score was an impressive 10! That's fantastic!"

"Thank you."

"What is your area of expertise?"

"Um, I'll just say for now weaponry."

"Well good for you I sure am excited!" Caesar said then Ender smiled sweetly though his eyes had a disgusted look in them.

"There's a question I've been dying to ask you before you go," Caesar said and Ender nodded.

"Is there a girl waiting for you back home?" Ender shook his head smiling, then I heard a murmur of excitement amongst the Capitolite girls.

"No?! I don't believe it!"

"You never let me finish Caesar," Ender said mischievously.

"_Oh_, please continue!"

"This special girl you're talking about is not in District 10. And, I haven't really told her, I was too nervous to say anything but I guess she'll find out now. This whole time I tried to keep it hidden..."

"Aw Ender don't be shy I'm sure she'll be happy to hear!"

"Well, and I feel terrible putting her on the spot, but the person I'm talking about is Ida, my wonderful friend from District 6." Everyone gasped, and Ida dropped her jaw looking extremely shocked.

"Wow! She's a lovely girl."

"Definitely. She's perfect." he said smiling to her, then she smiled sweetly as everyone went "Aw!"

"Well Ender, thank you for sharing this with us. I'm afraid we're nearly out of time; let's look at your other two pictures."

"Okay!" Ender said then we saw a picture of him in the middle of laughing as he held a pitchfork with grass and a cow behind him. He must have been working; it was a great picture too. The next one was one like the one Christina had that was professionally taken. It was from his shoulders up and crystal clear. It was a wonderful picture actually.

"And because you and your sister are here, we have an extra for the both of you." Caesar said then motioned to the screen as it changed to one of Christina and Ender back-to-back turning their heads to the side smiling beautifully into the camera. It was a beautiful picture, they looked so happy and you could tell they were close.

"It was wonderful meeting you Ender."

"Likewise." Ender said holding out his hand with Caesar shaking it. He walked off stage, then I got nervous because I'm going next.

"Ladies and gentleman please welcome Alessa Sparked from District 11!" Caesar said then I walked out putting a smile on my face though I was shaking.

"Welcome Alessa you look stunning." he said and shook my hand.

"Thank you."

"I hope you have liked the Capitol."

"I love it." I said and felt like it was a complete lie, but honestly I loved the technology here.

"So how is your family?"

"Good, but I wish I had my sister Eliza."

"What happened?"

"She got stuck in a crossfire between peacekeepers and a shoplifter. I miss her so much." I said and heard some sympathetic murmurs from the audience.

"Oh Alessa I'm so terribly sorry."

"Thank you Caesar, I really appreciate it."

"Oh, no problem Alessa! So did you have anybody waiting for you at home? How are your friends?"

"Good, I always think of my closest friend Adam. He was so easy for me to get along with. I miss him."

"I'm sure he misses you." I nodded sadly looking at the floor.

"I would hope so!" I said chuckling.

"So is there a special someone for you?"

"Yeah, he's from District 11 but I ran into him here." I said chuckling.

"That's wonderful! I'm very happy for you two! Would you mind telling us his name?"

"Cameron McPherson." I said and felt myself blushing. I heard a ton of people say "Aw!" at once which made me blush to the point that I felt how red I must have been.

"Can you tell us about him?"

"He's hilarious and entertaining for sure. I can't really explain it, he always puts a smile on my face."

"I know he'll be out there getting sponsors for you and your allies. Don't you think folks?" Caesar said and the crowed cheered loudly.

"Thank you, I would hope."

"Any nice memories you'd like to share with us from District 11?"

"Well, Adam and I always talked in a meadow right by my house pretty much every day. And we have since we were five. It's a sentimental memory for me." I said then heard some aw's from the crowd making me smile.

"That's wonderful, its so special too isn't it?"

"Yes quite." I said smiling and nodding.

"How about that beautiful necklace?" he asked pointing to the cross around my neck.

"Oh this is a cross, I'm a religious Catholic. I wear it every day and have for the longest time."

"Wonderful! The Catholic religion fascinates me, it truly does!"

"I guess I'll have to teach you about it sometime."

"I suppose you will. Now Alessa you scored well, what are some arena strategies for you?"

"I'm pretty good with plants and herbs. I should do pretty well in a vegetation-infested area."

"That's fantastic! I wish you the best of luck Alessa!"

"Thank you Caesar."

"Let's take a look at your pictures. We're almost out of time." he said and I nodded turning to face the screen. The first one I almost choked up on; it was me and Eliza hugging each other tightly a week before she died. We both looked so happy...

The second one was me scoffing at Adam who was laughing next to me, probably another "joke" he told me. A beautiful picture though. And the final one was me with Ms. Edenbleu and me singing as she played a piano.

"Wow you sing too! Thank you Alessa it was a pleasure meeting you!" Caesar said then I nodded and shook his hand standing up.

"Alessa Sparked, District 11!" he said and the crowd roared. I walked off stage then sat by Ender, and Erik walked on.

"Welcome Erik, how are you."

"Fantastic how are you?" Erik said convincingly, then Caesar smiled saying "I'm doing very well thank you. Can yo tell me about your family and friends in District 11?" Caesar asked, then Erik explained his relation to Aina. He gained so many sponsors admitting they were cousins. He also told the hilarious story about Liliana with the steak and the peacekeeper, people loved it. He was an enjoyable, polite, and attractive boy so many people loved him.

"Erik how about you, is there a special girl waiting for you?"

"Well not at home, but... I guess I might as well say it." he said taking a quick glance at Christina who nodded slowly one time.

"The girl is Christina O'Conor, from District 10."

"Oh wow!"

"I know there's a love octagon going on here." Erik said and everyone laughed.

"That's completely fine though!" Caesar said, and Erik shrugged.

"And you too got a good score, what did you think of that?"

"I certainly was happy, I tried my best and think you'll appreciate watching how I got it in the arena." he said mischievous making the Capitol love him even more.

"I'm excited! Let's go ahead and look at the pictures now." Caesar said, then we saw one of Erik with his little sisters. He was carrying one. They all looked so happy, they all had bright red hair and the sun was at a perfect angle making the picture have a warm feeling to it. The next one was him and Liliana smiling normally, and the final one was him laughing as he watched Liliana hold the infamous steak into the air with a triumphant grin on her face. Erik shook hands with Caesar then walked offstage sitting next to me.

The tributes from District 12 were both kind of shy, unfortunately not having much to talk about. I don't know if the Capitol will love them so much. I kind of pity them to be honest.

Well we'll soon find out, the Hunger Games begin tomorrow after all.

* * *

**(Nobody's POV, just a narrator)**

The tributes were dismissed and the tributes from Districts 6, 10, and 11 walked together to an elevator that none of the others were taking so they could talk in private.

They got onto an elevator, then pressed the buttons for their floors. Ida still hadn't spoken to Ender since his interview, and he began to worry. But as soon as the elevator doors closed she looked over her shoulder to everyone saying "Sorry guys." then threw her arms around Ender kissing him full on the lips. Ender acted slightly shocked, then his eyes closed and he kissed Ida back. Everyone gasped, and Christina smiled slapping Alessa's arm with a hand over her smiling mouth.

Ida backed away with an innocent smile, and they were both blushing a lot making everyone giggle.

"Yeah I wasn't waiting anymore, sorry I didn't want to make that awkward." Ida said and everyone waved it off. Each pair of tributes got off at their floors waving to each other, then went to bed preparing for the long day ahead of them, possibly their last day too.

* * *

_Please review! Sorry I was tired by Erik's interview..._

_I'm seeing _Catching Fire_ tomorrow I'm so excited! Thought I'd say that since this is a Hunger Games story..._

_For the question its an opinion. Who are your top three favorite characters? Out of Ida, Dylan, Christina, Ender, Alessa, and Erik. It doesn't _have _to include Alessa because the story's centered around her. I'm seriously curious!_

_Thanks for reading!_


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